Haaretz Podcast

The sweeping military success of the IDF's surprise preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities coupled with the devastating retaliatory ballistic missile strikes have left Israelis "feeling triumphant and scared at the same time," columnist Amir Tibon said on the Haaretz Podcast, adding that "the vast majority of the public in Israel support this war." Tibon [https://www.haaretz.com/ty-WRITER/0000017f-da25-d42c-afff-dff77f020000], Haaretz's former diplomatic correspondent, reviewed the progress of the war over the first week with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, along with the ways he sees the conflict potentially playing out. "The best-case scenario for Israel is either an American attack on the underground Fordow nuclear site [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-17/ty-article/.premium/idf-estimates-it-can-hit-all-planned-targets-in-iran-within-week-including-fordow-site/00000197-7f63-da11-a797-ff7322c10000] or an agreement that causes the Iranians to give up the uranium there," he said. "The worst case scenario is a war of attrition with Iran, in which we continue to bomb them but cannot fully eliminate some of their sites, and they continue to bomb us and wake us up three times every night with ballistic missiles [https://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/middle-east-updates/2025-06-18/ty-article/.premium/no-israelis-wounded-from-iranian-rockets-while-iaea-reports-damage-to-nuclear-facilities/00000197-8275-d9ff-aff7-877f10f10000]." In retrospect, Tibon said, "the 10 days before the Israeli strike were a joint American-Israeli trap set for the Iranians" in which U.S. President Donald Trump deceptively declared he was pressuring Israel to stand down in deference to diplomatic efforts. Also on the podcast, Professor Amit Schejter, one of the tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-16/ty-article/.premium/israel-prohibits-airlines-from-letting-israeli-citizens-leave-the-country/00000197-7854-d3ff-a7bf-7cd4b67d0000] after the war shut down Israel's airports, discusses the challenges of finding his way back home.   See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

In a special podcast on the new and devastating conflict between Israel and Iran, host Allison Kaplan Sommer talks to Haaretz senior security analyst Amos Harel, who assesses the initial military achievements, the high price of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to launch a preemptive strike on the Islamic Republic and the likelihood of the United States being pulled into the war.  Harel believes that while, as always, there were political and personal interests behind the premier’s timing of the attack, Israel’s top security chiefs widely viewed it as necessary. “Not only was Iran on its way to becoming a nuclear power, but there were other parts of its plans in which they were making impressive progress in recent weeks. Their rate of production of ballistic missiles meant that within a few years, the Iranian arsenal that could hit Israel would probably rise to up to 8,000 missiles. The current assessment is around 2,500 missiles. That is quite a difference, and there was a narrow window of opportunity in which Israel had to act.” Harel was skeptical that a cease-fire was possible any time soon since “not enough blood has been spilled.” He was also doubtful that Israel’s display of force and destruction could push the ideologically driven ayatollahs to the negotiating table to make compromises on nuclear enrichment.  If the conflict drags on and “becomes a war of attrition that leads nowhere, then Netanyahu will be in deep trouble,” he predicted. Judy Rowland, a former New Yorker also joined the podcast to share her harrowing experience when an Iranian ballistic missile hit her Tel Aviv apartment building. She lived on the 29th floor on Friday night, which she said, felt reminiscent of the 9/11 attack.  When the missile struck, she and her family were huddled in their apartment’s safe room. “We thought about the people who were stuck on the higher floors” in the New York towers.  “When we smelled smoke, I started thinking ‘Will we burn to death? Or will we jump out of the windows?’”  The parallel arose again as the Rowlands and their neighbors were making their way down the tens of flights of stairs amid the debris seeking safety. “I couldn’t help thinking about all those people in the buildings walking down the stairs. All of us felt it and were saying the same thing. It was a total 9/11 moment. This was our 9/11.” See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Plans by anti-war protesters to disrupt the wedding of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Avner have turned the festivities into the focus of controversy in Israel, said Haaretz journalist Rachel Fink, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast.  The protests reflect an attempt to send a message that holding such a celebration as war continues in Gaza, represents an “unacceptable” level of insensitivity, Fink [https://www.haaretz.com/ty-WRITER/0000018c-e881-d249-a1ce-efc5f6670000] explained. “At a time when so much of Israel is suffering for so many reasons – the hostages, soldiers who have fallen in the war, how much suffering there is in Gaza right now – it just feels so blatantly inappropriate to have this extravagant over-the-top wedding.” Still, Fink noted in her conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, there are many Israelis in the anti-Netanyahu protest movement who believe that personal celebrations should be off-limits for angry protests and the young couple should not suffer for their parents’ behavior.  Some are also convinced that if the wedding is disrupted by the protest movement, there will be a backlash of sympathy for the Prime Minister and his family that will “feed into their narrative that we [the protesters] are anarchists, that we have no sense of common decency. This will only play against us” and a truly successful disruption of the Netanyahu wedding “could turn into a disaster for us, not them.” Subscribe to Haaretz.com [https://promotion.haaretz.com/] for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel in English.  Read more: Too Far? Debate Over Protests at Avner Netanyahu's Wartime Wedding Roils Israelis [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-08/ty-article-magazine/.premium/too-far-debate-over-protests-at-avner-netanyahus-wartime-wedding-roils-israelis/00000197-4f54-deed-a9bf-5f7fb7370000] From Sept. 2024: Israeli Ministers, Politicians Attend Joyous Wedding as Murdered Hostages Laid to Rest [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-09-03/ty-article/.premium/israeli-ministers-politicians-attend-joyous-wedding-as-murdered-hostages-laid-to-rest/00000191-b84d-d95b-a1d5-b97d2f830000] From March 2023: Sara Netanyahu and the Salon Siege: Life-saving Rescue or the Plot of an ‘Evil Genius’? [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-02/ty-article/.premium/sara-netanyahu-and-the-salon-siege-life-saving-rescue-or-the-plot-of-an-evil-genius/00000186-a2e8-d3d5-a7e7-aaedd6de0000] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Israel’s new controversial aid initiative in Gaza and its support for the Abu Shabab criminal gang rivaling Hamas share the common goal of helping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prolong the war, journalist Nir Hasson said on the Haaretz Podcast.  “Netanyahu must preserve the radical right-wing fantasy of ethnic cleansing in Gaza for political survival. For this, he needs the war to continue,” said Hasson, who covers the humanitarian toll of the war for Haaretz. Hasson said that until “we have any other proof” of who is behind the shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-05-29/ty-article/.premium/over-140-million-a-month-the-secret-source-funding-gaza-humanitarian-aid/00000197-171f-de0d-a7f7-b77f347c0000], he regards it as “a proxy of the State of Israel.” Therefore, he said, Israel’s leaders are responsible for the “humiliating” and “dangerous” scenes at GHF aid distribution sites.   In his conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Hasson also discussed his Haaretz investigation into the failure of Israel’s evacuation warnings [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-04-21/ty-article/.premium/israeli-army-no-longer-designates-humanitarian-zones-in-gaza-since-fighting-resumed/00000196-5766-d9fc-adbf-5f6f355b0000] to protect civilians in Gaza.  “In Gaza, there is nowhere to run. Even the IDF safe zones are not safe,” he said. “Israel has really pushed the civilian population of Gaza to the edge.” The unprecedented level of destruction and human suffering there, Hasson said, has reached the point where “I can’t find the words anymore to describe the way I feel about what we’re doing in Gaza. And I'm not alone in this feeling. [There are] more and more Israelis around me that think that it's gone too far.  “If we had the excuse of not taking humanitarian issues into consideration because of the trauma of October 7 – it's about time to start talking about it. …I hope we'll see it more, but it's not going fast enough.” Subscribe to Haaretz.com [https://promotion.haaretz.com/] for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel in English.  Read more from Nir Hasson: Armed Gaza Militia Rivaling Hamas Hands Out Aid in Israeli-controlled Zone [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2025-06-05/ty-article/.premium/armed-gaza-militia-rivaling-hamas-hands-out-aid-in-israeli-controlled-zone/00000197-3f9a-dc9f-afbf-bffbc7d30000]  Testimonies: IDF Responsible for Lethal Shootings Near U.S.-led Aid Site in Gaza [https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2025-06-05/ty-article-magazine/.premium/testimonies-idf-responsible-for-lethal-shootings-near-rafah-u-s-led-aid-site/00000197-3ff2-da41-a9f7-3ff623280000] Hunger Games: Israel Forces Gazans to Choose Between Starvation and Risking Their Lives [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-06/ty-article/.premium/hunger-games-israel-forcing-gazans-to-choose-between-starving-and-risking-their-lives/00000197-4572-d9f1-abb7-7d765de00000]  An American Doctor Visited Gaza and Saw the Horror Up Close. Five Cases Haunt Her [https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2025-05-29/ty-article-magazine/.premium/an-american-doctor-visited-gaza-and-saw-the-horror-up-close-five-cases-haunt-her/00000197-1c2b-d0e9-abd7-3dab857a0000] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began facing cross-examination by prosecutors in his criminal trial, the majority of Israelis are much more focused on “life-and-death” issues as the Gaza war wears on, Haaretz columnist and public opinion expert Dahlia Scheindlin said on the Haaretz Podcast.  The subdued level of public interest [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2025-06-04/ty-article/.highlight/israelis-hold-netanyahu-guilty-of-far-greater-crimes-than-the-charges-he-faces-in-court/00000197-3c49-da41-a9f7-3dcd90160000] “highlights how Israelis have become resigned to the extraordinary situation of their prime minister being on trial for corruption during the longest war and the most devastating war Israel has ever had,” Scheindlin [https://www.haaretz.com/ty-WRITER/0000017f-da25-d494-a17f-de27a1400000] said.  While polls show a majority of Israelis frustrated and “furious” over that situation, “they feel helpless to do anything about it,” Scheindlin added.  Deeply upset about the continuing hostage crisis and IDF casualties, and with reservists and their families exhausted [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-03-16/ty-article-magazine/.premium/facing-reservist-shortage-idf-units-resort-to-dubious-recruitment-ads-on-social-media/00000195-9e7a-d885-a39f-bf7bdcb10000], the Israeli public has little patience for courtroom banter regarding issues like the size of a Bugs Bunny doll [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-03/ty-article-live/five-years-after-criminal-trial-began-netanyahu-faces-first-day-of-cross-examination/00000197-349a-d9f1-abb7-7cfe61600000?liveBlogItemId=172598546&utm_source=site&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=live_blog_item#172598546] that a Hollywood tycoon gave to the Netanyahu children in the 1990s which, Scheindlin said, “trivializes the proceedings.” In her conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Scheindlin also analyzes the brewing political crisis in Israel as the ultra-Orthodox party Degel HaTorah threatens [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-03/ty-article/.premium/haredi-party-says-will-quit-govt-if-law-exempting-ultra-orthodox-from-idf-doesnt-advance/00000197-3747-d079-ab97-774737cf0000] to bring down the government over its failure to pass a law exempting Haredi men from military service and assesses the odds as to whether the country will soon be heading into new elections.  “When governments fall in Israel, they usually fall over religion and state issues,” she said.  Subscribe to Haaretz.com [https://promotion.haaretz.com/] for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel in English.  Read more: 'I Did Not Commit a Single Crime': Netanyahu Calls Indictments 'Persecution' on First Day of Cross-examination [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-03/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-calls-indictments-persecution-on-first-day-of-cross-examination/00000197-36f3-d9f1-abb7-7ef79ca00000] Explained: Why Is Benjamin Netanyahu on Trial? [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-03/ty-article-live/sfdaf/00000197-349a-d9f1-abb7-7cfe61600000?liveBlogItemId=1476633753&utm_source=site&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=live_blog_item#1476633753]  Yes to Transfer: 82% of Jewish Israelis Back Expelling Gazans [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-05-28/ty-article-magazine/.premium/yes-to-transfer-82-of-jewish-israelis-back-expelling-gazans/00000197-12a4-df22-a9d7-9ef6af930000] A Grim Poll Showed Most Jewish Israelis Support Expelling Gazans. It's Brutal – and It's True [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-03/ty-article/.premium/a-grim-poll-shows-most-jewish-israelis-support-expelling-gazans-its-brutal-and-true/00000197-3640-d9f1-abb7-7e742b300000] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.