The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.
Israel announced Monday morning that it would renew strikes on Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, after significantly curtailing attacks on the Lebanese capital for weeks at the request of US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The joint statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz came as Israel has steadily expanded its ground offensive by capturing more areas in southern Lebanon, including the iconic Beaufort Castle, amid constant Hezbollah drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel and on IDF troops in Lebanon.
We delve into what is actually happening on the ground -- and air -- during this "ceasefire" in Lebanon.
Yesterday evening, two teenage girls were injured, including one seriously, in a car-ramming terror attack in the West Bank just outside of Jerusalem, with the attacker shot dead by IDF troops at the scene. Fabian fills us in.
Netanyahu said Thursday that he ordered the IDF to take control of 70 percent of the Gaza Strip – well beyond the portion of the enclave that Jerusalem was allowed to temporarily continue occupying as part of an October 2025 ceasefire deal with Hamas. We discuss what this new directive means in practice and explore what the IDF is currently doing in the Strip.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Israel says it will renew strikes on Hezbollah in Beirut after lobbying for US green light
IDF captures strategic Beaufort Castle, as soldier killed in Hezbollah drone strike
IDF soldier killed, 3 hurt, in Hezbollah drone attack near newly seized Beaufort Castle
Israel shuts schools near Lebanon border amid repeated Hezbollah rocket, drone attacks
Two teen girls hurt, one seriously, in car-ramming terror attack at West Bank junction
Netanyahu says he told IDF to seize 70% of Gaza, well beyond terms of truce
‘A jungle’: Reservists speak of permissive open-fire rules along Gaza’s Yellow Line
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Political correspondent Tal Schneider joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
As northern Israel was battered by a barrage of rockets from Hezbollah over the weekend, Schneider discusses ongoing criticism of the government for allowing the situation to continue, while noting that Israel's hands are tied; it can't disrupt US negotiations with Iran, and that regime controls Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Schneider also talks about Beaufort Castle, a strategic fortress in Lebanon last controlled by Israel in 2000 and now taken by the IDF once again.
The Knesset will vote Monday on whether to dissolve this government, and will choose one of several possible dates for elections in September or October, as Schneider reviews the options.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Soldier killed in Hezbollah drone strike in Lebanon; IDF captures strategic Beaufort Castle
Plurality of far-right voters oppose government with ultra-Orthodox parties — poll
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Political correspondent Tal Schneider joins host Jessica Steinberg for Daily Briefing podcast (ToI)
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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.
This week, we learn that famed actress and chanteuse Barbra Streisand received an honorary Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Borschel-Dan, who is reading the artist's massive memoir, calls on all podcast fans to send in the names of their favorite Streisand films for a future episode.
We then turn to the monumentally Jewish movie, "A Serious Man," written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen in 2009.
Set in 1967 Minnesota, the film focuses on the Gopnik family: father Larry, mother Judith, kids Danny and Sarah, and uncle Arthur. On the surface, the middle-class family appears to be merrily rolling along, anticipating Danny's approaching bar mitzvah. And then everything falls apart and it becomes a very funny retelling of the Book of Job.
However, before the movie takes off, the audience is treated to a quote from the great rabbinic sage Rashi and is shown a Yiddish-only shtetl ghost story short -- just... because.
Stay tuned for our duo's thoughts on the much-recommended Coen brothers' film, "A Serious Man."
The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan, speaking with author and scholar Dara Horn.
Horn visited ToI's Jerusalem studio while on a break from this year’s International Writers Festival in Jerusalem, taking place May 25-28 at the city’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim cultural center
An author of novels and non-fiction, including “People Love Dead Jews,” “Eternal Life,” “A Guide for the Perplexed,” Horn's latest book -- her first for young readers -- is “One Little Goat.”
Her newest nonfiction work will be published by Simon & Schuster in September under the title, "The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living."
We hear about how, after Horn published her bestselling work, "People Love Dead Jews," readers asked her for the solution to this problem. This week, she speaks about her new education initiative, Tell, which is bent on teaching American schoolchildren about real, living Jews, and Jewish culture.
To launch the wide-ranging conversation, Horn defines terms, explaining that Jews are not a religion, but a people with a religion. This difference, she states, is massive and must be internalized to understand the millennia of hate experienced by the Jewish people.
Since the Hamas onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and the resultant retaliatory war in Gaza, there has been an outsized focus on the trend of "non-Zionist" or "anti-Zionist" Jews. Who are these Jews -- and are they significant in the chronicles of Jewish history?
And so, this week, we ask author Dara Horn, what matters now?
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Yitzchak Ledee.

IMAGE: AP
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Will Orthodox middle-class life in America remain sustainable for future generations? Stub opens by discussing how and why Orthodox Jewish communities are financially drained. He explains how -- through a combination of private education, elite housing locations and larger households -- the cost of living is increasingly more than families can afford. He drives home that the challenge is not only how to remain financially afloat today and mentions how one possible solution to the growing issue in the US is immigration to Israel.
We discuss Stub's recent reporting on a related matter: With growing numbers of Diaspora Jews seeking a foothold in Israel, market players are rewriting the rules of real estate, reimagining community around rabbinic leadership, municipal planning and group purchasing models designed to meet their needs.
Stub also elucidates how, despite the attractions of moving to Israel, many American Jews harbor deep fears about exposing themselves to the challenges of life in Israeli society. Differences in language and cultural norms — from navigating bureaucracy to casual conversations— are frequent sources of anxiety that leave newcomers overwhelmed. He explains why this leads many American Jews to group together within Anglo-centric communities.
We close the episode with a brief teaser of what to expect from the upcoming Maccabiah Games in Israel. Despite concerns and cancellations from delegations from several countries following continued tensions with Iran, about 5,000 participants from more than 40 countries are still expected to compete in the two-week international competition that starts on June 30.
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