Ask Haviv Anything

A note from Haviv to our viewers: Please excuse the video troubles. Elizabeth’s connectivity was limited for the first half hour or so of the conversation. But the audio came through perfectly and we didn’t want to scrap a deeply informative conversation because of those connection issues.

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Episode 158: What actually holds Iran’s regional axis together, and why can't military force alone break it? Israeli analyst Elizabeth Tsurkov, now working on her doctorate at Princeton on these and other questions, has spent two decades studying the Arab nations most influenced by Iran’s regime. She also knows firsthand how Iran’s “proxies” in the region operate, having survived 903 days of captivity in Iraq at the hands of the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah.

She joins me to talk about the impending round of war with Iran, the lessons that she hopes were learned from the failure of the 39-day war to topple the regime in the last round, and how Iraq’s militias have evolved from ideological holy warriors into a massive state-looting racket that now bankrolls Tehran.

We also debate whether Israel’s post-October 7 buffer-zone strategy is backfiring in Syria, and whether Jerusalem is blowing a historic opportunity to strike a peace deal with Damascus.

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This episode was sponsored by Barbara and Peter Tuckel in memory of their parents, Eva and Max Tuckel and Rose and Harry Kaplan, with thanks to Haviv for encouraging more learning about Jewish and Middle Eastern history, inviting experts to bring greater clarity to controversial issues that affect us daily, and constantly instilling the core idea that Jews are an “am” -- a people.

Thank you to the Tuckel’s for that dedication. It’s wind in our sails.

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Producer and editor: Rachel Gur
Presenter and editor: Haviv Gur
Operations: Nadav Singerman
Musical intro: Adam Ben Amitai

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also “Buy Me a Coffee” at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

We have merch! Find our awesome new shirts, mugs and hats at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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Netanyahu was vulnerable. His opponents mobilized their voters and delivered huge increases in turnout. But no side secured a governing majority. What happened?

We dig into the election numbers, the cracks in Netanyahu’s coalition, and the opposition’s failure to turn his weaknesses into victory.

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This episode was sponsored anonymously in appreciation of Haviv’s “tireless commitment” to history, analysis, and a wide-ranging selection of guests. The sponsor called our community an “essential forum for diaspora audiences seeking to understand Israel and for Israelis engaging with the concerns and perspective of Jewish communities around the world.”

Thank you for sponsoring this episode.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).
 
We have merch! Find our awesome new mug and hat at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.
 
And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).
 
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Even if you hate every option on the ballot today, staying home is a vote for the factions you dislike most. And understanding David Ben-Gurion’s founding principle of mamlachtiut reveals why showing up to the polls is as vital to Israel's survival as military reserve duty.
 
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This episode is sponsored by the Technion.
 
Israel became the Startup Nation by turning talent into strength, ideas into industries.
 
For more than a century, the Technion has trained the engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs who transformed Israel into the Startup Nation and delivered breakthroughs that changed the world.
 
Now Technion scientists are advancing the next wave of innovation to help power Israel’s next chapter.
 
Israel. Engineered by the Technion.
 
Join us. Visit ats.org/rebuild.
 
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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
 
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.
 
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

We have merch! Find our awesome new mug and hat at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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American and Israeli Jews make up nearly 90% of world Jewry, yet when they talk to each other, they more often than not talk past each other. Like ships passing in the night. To unpack why, Haviv is joined by his father, Rabbi Dr. Ed Rettig. Born in the US, Ed moved to Israel at 18, fought on the front lines of the Yom Kippur War just months later, and went on to become a Jerusalem police prosecutor, a rabbi, and a sociologist of the Jewish people.

Together, they break down the six hidden fault lines dividing the world’s two great Jewish civilizations: how radical American Protestantism turned American Judaism into a "religion of choice" while Israel remained a Middle Eastern "religion of fate"; why secular Judaism thrives in Israel but struggles to survive two generations in America; why "separation of church and state" and "separation of religion and state" mean opposite things; how each community understands and wields power after October 7; and how the centrality of sacrifice shapes the way they see the world.

This episode is dedicated by Michael Kapnick in memory of Max Steinberg, z"l, an American kid from Los Angeles who fell as a Golani lone soldier in Gaza in 2014, and whose life and sacrifice embody the bond between our two different worlds.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

We have merch! Find our awesome new mug and hat at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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In the 1950s and 60s, Gamal Abdel Nasser promised the Arab world that unity would erase the humiliation of 1948 and ultimately destroy Israel. Instead, it led to the devastation of 1967. Enter Anwar Sadat, who engineered a limited war in 1973 not to conquer Israel militarily, but to deliver a psychological shock that would force American intervention and secure Egypt’s national interests over pan-Arab fantasies. Today, Israel faces a new regional axis led by Iran, fueled by religious redemption rather than secular nationalism. Dan Schueftan joins the podcast to unpack the strategic genius of Sadat, the miscalculations of President Carter, and the historical blueprint Israeli leaders are working from as they seek to break the Iranian ring of fire today.

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This episode is sponsored by David Allouch and dedicated to his friend Jake Marlow, whose Hebrew name was Yaakov Avraham ben Moshe, a talented musician who was murdered on October 7, 2023 while rescuing partygoers at the Nova festival where he had been working security. This episode is also dedicated to Eden Yerushalmi and the five other hostages murdered alongside her in August 2024, and to all the tzaddikim (righteous) who were murdered on October 7. It is also dedicated as “a tribute to the memory of Israel’s fallen soldiers and to the courage of the roaring lions of the IDF and the IAF in their battle against evil.”

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. On Patreon and Substack, you can also ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.