Haaretz Podcast

• Netanyahu will 'do anything to stay in power’: If early elections are called, could he win?

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decisively lost his Knesset majority following the exit of the two major ultra-Orthodox parties that were pillars of his coalition, which now holds only 49 seats in the 120-member parliament. But celebration is premature for those hoping for swift elections that could lead to the end of his rule, warns Haaretz columnist and political strategist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin on the Haaretz Podcast. The ultra-Orthodox may have left the government in a “very demonstrative way, but if they don't actually join a vote that would bring down the government and launch early elections, it doesn't really matter,” Scheindlin said. As the Knesset enters its summer recess with a minority in power, only reconvening in October, “their exit from the coalition is essentially a matter of holding a political sword over the head of Netanyahu, over the government's head, saying ‘we are poised to bring down this government now and launch early elections’“ – but elections are far from a certainty. What is becoming increasingly certain for most Israelis, Scheindlin told podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, is the fact that the government has “made it extremely clear that its political interests override the good of the state” by doing everything in its power to advance the law the ultra-Orthodox are pressuring them to pass, exempting Haredi men from military service at a time when the country needs manpower more desperately than ever. Subscribe to Haaretz.com for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel and the Middle East in English. Read more from Dahlia Schiendlin in Haaretz: Bolting Parties, Baffling Polls: Are Elections in Israel Imminent? What Are Netanyahu's Chances of Winning? Netanyahu's Trial Is a Seductive Spectacle. But Dead Gazan Children Matter Far More Netanyahu Should End the Gaza War Now – for His Own Sake, if Not for Israel'sSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Behind Trump’s crusade to 'save Bibi' from his criminal trial

  If it weren’t for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial and the multiple investigations into payments made by Qatar to his closest aides, the Gaza war could have been over, Bar Peleg, who has been covering Netanyahu’s legal woes, said on the Haaretz Podcast. In his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Peleg laid out the details of the multiple investigations, including BibiLeaks and Qatargate, against the Israeli premier in light of the calls by President Donald Trump that his trial be “cancelled.” Trump has also suggested that Netanyahu should be given a pardon, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee’s appearance at his trial in a show of support. A recent exposé by Peleg and Gidi Weitz revealed that the Trump administration is actively intervening in the Qatargate investigation by preventing a key U.S. witness, Qatar lobbyist Jay Footlik, from being questioned by Israel Police. Without Footlik’s testimony, which has now been postponed three times, “the case may well be stuck.” The active crusade by the Trump administration to “save Bibi Netanyahu,” as the president put it on social media, “is the most interference that we have seen from the United States in Israel in internal matters.” Peleg said that all evidence points to the fact that Netanyahu’s legal woes have impacted his policy decisions over the past five years, with particularly fateful consequences over the course of the Gaza war. Israelis “need to know that what their prime minister is doing is what is important for the state – and when we see how Netanyahu is acting regarding the war, we don’t believe fully that he is doing what is good for Israel,” Peleg said. If Netanyahu was not on trial and facing other potential criminal charges, Peleg said, “maybe this war would have ended.” Subscribe to Haaretz.com for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel and the Middle East in English. Read more: Haaretz Exposé | U.S. Officials: Order to Prevent Israeli Investigation of Key Qatargate Figure Jay Footlik 'Came From Above' How Jay Footlik Went From Democratic Insider to Player in Netanyahu's Dirty Wartime Scandal Following the Money: Where Does Qatargate Scandal Involving Netanyahu's Closest Aides and Gulf State Stand?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Dropping bombs and dialogue? Israel-Syria peace talks right now are ‘absolutely mind-boggling’

  The Israeli military strike on southern Syria this week is “concerning” in view of the “unexpected opportunity” for a potential peace agreement with the new government there, Israel’s former deputy security adviser Chuck Freilich said on the Haaretz Podcast. On Tuesday, the IDF struck Syrian army forces that had entered the city of Sweida to prevent harm to Druze communities and ensure the demilitarization of the area. The action was strongly denounced by the Syrian government. While Freilich said he understands that it was “part of the post-October 7 policy of not allowing potential threats to evolve on any of Israel's borders,” he believed the limited nature of the Syrian military intervention and the “channels of communication” that now exist could have been “used to reach some understanding.” Instead, he said, the Netanyahu government “seems to be taking a really absolutist approach.” Freilich told podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer in their conversation that in his view, the government headed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa is “saying the right things” regarding Israel and, more importantly, backing up their words with actions. “They’re talking to us, and they seem to be willing to reach some sort of agreement,” he said, noting that they refrained from condemning Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and “has thrown the Iranians and Hezbollah out of Syria. They are strongly anti-Iranian, probably as much as we are. So there’s a meeting of interests here that we should be really working to take advantage of.” “The fact that this is going on is absolutely mind-boggling, if one considers the history between Israel and Syria.” Freilich said that he would be “thrilled” to see U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision of Syria joining the Abraham Accords manifest in the near future, but he cautioned that it may be “a bridge too far” at the moment, and a more limited non-belligerence treaty is more realistic in the short-term. Freilich also discussed the aftermath of the 12-day Israel-Iran war on the podcast, explaining that the most conservative estimates establish that the attack on Iranian nuclear sites set the country’s nuclearization program back by several years. The only way to ensure long-term protection from a nuclear Iran, he emphasized, is diplomacy. “A nuclear deal is the only way that we can ensure that they don't cross the threshold for the long-term. Military action has now gained up to four years, but if they want to reconstitute they can because they have the know-how. The only way to achieve an indefinite freeze on the program is a deal.” Subscribe to Haaretz.com for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel and the Middle East in English. Read more: Opinion | Israel Should Help Shape a New Syria. But It Must Do So Carefully, Quietly and Quickly Analysis | Fresh Syria Violence Undercuts the Optimism Over Ties Between Israel and the New Regime Syrians Abroad Dismiss Talk of Normalization With Israel: 'We Fear the Consequences, Especially for Palestinians'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• The U.S. and Canada are running out of Reform rabbis. Look who's taking their place

  A crisis-level shortage of clergy in North American Reform and Conservative synagogues has led to a fascinating new phenomenon – an exodus of Israeli-born rabbis moving to the United States and Canada to serve as spiritual leaders. On the Haaretz Podcast, Judy Maltz, Haaretz’s Jewish world editor who has reported on the trend, explains how these Israelis are filling an ever-growing need as fewer and fewer young North American Jews are training to be rabbis in non-Orthodox movements. Meanwhile, the number of Israelis receiving rabbinic ordination has grown. “I think what's luring them abroad primarily is the salaries and the conditions,” Maltz told podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, adding there was another extremely appealing factor: respect. “A woman rabbi who had recently taken a job in New York said to me ‘I no longer have to prove I'm a rabbi here.’ That is a very appealing factor: being admired and accepted for what you are and your profession, and that you don't have to constantly fight for recognition and legitimacy.” By contrast, in Israel, they are still battling for that legitimacy and even face mockery. The Israeli imports are helping to solve the “very huge shortage of rabbis” to serve U.S. congregations in the non-Orthodox Jewish community “because nobody really wants to go to rabbinical school anymore and the whole business of organized synagogue life has become less appealing,” Maltz explained. With liberal Jews affiliated with Jewish organizations (like synagogues) are having fewer and fewer children, she said, it has also been more difficult for Reform and Conservative congregations to sustain their traditionally strong youth movements “which have been the pipeline tor rabbinical school.” The new imports, Maltz noted, are not only breathing new spiritual life into their new congregations “but since October 7, these Israeli rabbis find themselves serving as a kind of bridge between their congregations and Israel – and as an important resource on information about what's happening in Israel where the news changes so quickly. They are finding themselves in this new and rather unexpected role of explaining what's happening.” Subscribe to Haaretz.com for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel and the Middle East in English. Read more: Israel's Hottest New Export: Reform and Conservative Rabbis Far-right Mob Storms Reform Synagogue in Ra'anana Screening Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony Beyond Netflix's Hot Rabbi: Progressive Judaism Is Having a Moment on Screen 'Proof of a Thirst': Percentage of Reform Jews in Israel Doubles in Recent YearsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• 'I touched death so many times in Gaza': Released hostage Aviva Siegel on 'screaming' for a cease-fire deal

  Israel, it seems, is once again on the brink of a cease-fire deal with Hamas – one that would see hostilities halted for at least two months, and an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages. But as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump talk particulars in Washington, the families of the 50 remaining hostages are far from relieved. The deal on the table would only bring home 10 of the living hostages, and the remains of 18 of the deceased – leaving the fate of the 22 others in question. Aviva Siegel was kidnapped on October 7 from Kibbutz Kfar Azza along with her husband, Keith. She was released after 51 days, and campaigned tirelessly for Keith's release. After he came home in February, the reunited couple have fought for the return of the remaining hostages in Gaza. Siegel joins Haaretz reporter Linda Dayan to talk about this deal, captivity, adjusting to freedom and the urgency of bringing every hostage home. "Nobody's really talking about what's going to happen after the 10 [living hostages] come home, and half the hostages that aren't alive," Siegel says. "I've asked important people if they can answer that, because it's a question that I think about all the time, and I'm very, very worried." On what may be the eve of a historic decision, she says that she would tell decision-makers – at home and abroad – her own story, and ask them how they can abandon the hostages who remain there, like 27-year-old twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman. "I was there for the 51 days. I felt that I was left behind," she recounted. "And there were so many moments that I lost hope and I just wanted to die. What I saw in Gaza and what I felt was so much for a human being to go through. I just wanted to die. So I want the leaders to understand that they have to take responsibility – I'm just an ordinary person, and I just want my life back." Subscribe to Haaretz.com for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel and the Middle East in English. Read more: 'I Still Can't Believe It When I See My Father Eating, Sleeping, and Wearing Warm Clothes' 'A Little More and You're Home': Kfar Azza's Fight for Its Last Hostages in Gaza What Exactly Is In the Cease-fire/Hostage Deal On the Table?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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