Haaretz Podcast

Gadi Eisenkot's bid to form an "emergency" minority government and swiftly oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be a "daring move if it succeeds," according to veteran journalist and author Anshel Pfeffer.
Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for The Economist and a contributing columnist for Haaretz, said Eisenkot, who was tasked on Sunday with forming a government, appears to be breaking with the "old, tired ways of Israeli coalition building."
Eisenkot is instead pursuing an unprecedented strategy for Israel: establish a minority government quickly, then persuade other parties to join it, which Pfeffer called an “interesting innovation.”
Speaking with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Pfeffer analyzed Eisenkot’s options to form a government, including whether Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties would be willing to support his mission to unseat Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, who has not appeared in public since election night, faces another challenge in Washington. The Democratic "blue tsunami" in the U.S. midterms has made him a "liability in Washington" for both Democrats and Republicans, Pfeffer said.
“If Netanyahu ever had a claim to being Israel's super expert and super statesman with anything to do with the relationship with America, that has now been blown out of the water,” said Pfeffer, who wrote a biography of the prime minister.
He said the midterm results hammered home the fact that “the most dramatic deterioration of the Israeli-American relationship on both sides of the aisle” has taken place under his watch.
Read more on haaretz.com:
Netanyahu Has Never Been More Desperate. His Unity Plea Says It All
Eisenkot's Path to Power Demands Compromise. Will Lieberman Block It?
Inside the Shin Bet's Election Interference Probe
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Just as money from conservative American organizations promoted the ideas that led to Israel’s judicial overhaul, some of the same billionaire-backed funds are now being used to cultivate a "new elite" of right-wing ideologues within Israel's security establishment, promoting a vision of West Bank annexation and mass Palestinian emigration.
Haaretz correspondents Yarden Michaeli and Nettanel Slyomovics discuss their in-depth investigation into this ambitious “long-term project,” which involves a complex network of organizations founded and funded by conservative American Jews.
A new group at the center of this network presented its 274-page vision document to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year, which recommends Palestinian “voluntary emigration” from the West Bank be encouraged. The plan stipulates that half a million Palestinians would leave within the first decade, and another 250,000 in the following.
Slyomovics noted that many of the people and organizations involved in this “new ecosystem” also played key roles in promoting the judicial overhaul that sparked mass protests across Israel, and have ties to conservative ideological movements in the U.S.
Alumni of the program, he added, include Shin Bet chief David Zini and Yoram Halevi, the official responsible for coordinating government activities in the West Bank, both of whom were appointed to their positions after participating in the program.
Also on the podcast, Haaretz correspondent Linda Dayan joins host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss Israeli reactions to the U.S. midterm elections and the results’ implications for coalition negotiations amid a political deadlock following Israel’s election last week. They also look at the continuing efforts by Netanyahu's right-wing allies to delegitimize the election results with allegations of foreign interference.
Read more on haaretz.com:
U.S. Midterms Will Usher in a Radically Different Israel Policy. Israelis Aren't Ready
Netanyahu Is Plotting a Final Power Grab. His Loyalist Shin Bet Chief Is the Key
America's Right Is Tired of Israel and Jews. NatCon Jerusalem Confirms It
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The 2026 midterm elections mark “a fork in the road in terms of how Americans view the U.S.-Israel relationship, and that fork in the road is going to be reflected accordingly in the next Congress,” according to Haaretz U.S. bureau chief Ben Samuels.
Focusing on the explosive race for the Senate in Michigan - where Democrat Haley Stevens just threw her support behind a Republican candidate over Democrat Abdul El Sayed - as well as other key contests in what is expected to result in a “blue wave” for the Democrats on election night, Samuels outlined the issues on voter’s minds regarding Israel and the cases the candidates are making, particularly to Jewish voters.
Also on the podcast, Michigan voter Max Kresch, an Israeli-American who lives in Jerusalem and served in the IDF, explains why he chose to support Democratic candidate El-Sayed. Israelis, he said, need American politicians like El-Sayed to act as “partners that are willing to hold our politicians in check,” as long as the Israeli government is controlled by far-right extremists.
Read more on haaretz.com:
Democrat Haley Stevens Backs GOP in Michigan Senate Race After Israel Feud With El-Sayed
I'm an Israeli-American Jew. I Love Israel. I Voted for Abdul El-Sayed
Mamdani and Trump Loom Over the Battle for Jewish Voters in a Key New York House Race
For Texas Jewish Voters, Israel Sharpens the Choice Between Talarico and Paxton
Antisemitism and Scandals Haunting GOP Give Democrats an Opening in Ohio

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The main lesson of Israel’s election on Tuesday was that “the October 7 war did not change Israeli society,” said Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn, speaking on a special post-election edition of the Haaretz Podcast.
Despite the turbulence of the past four years, he said, “at the moment of truth, people clung to the tribal loyalties, to the feeling of identity, of belonging” rather than reacting critically to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s many missteps and failures, he explained.
Together with Haaretz senior analyst Esther Solomon and podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Benn analyzed the complicated coalition wrangling that will determine who steers Israel into the future, after a vote in which there was a clear majority of Israeli citizens voting against Netanyahu, but with an opposition divided between Jewish Zionist parties and Arab majority parties.
Solomon hailed the record turnout in Arab communities, noting that “the Palestinian citizens of Israel, who have had an internal debate for many, many years about whether to participate in Israeli politics or not, made a historic decision this time around to participate, and in incredible numbers, and that has changed the complexion of the Knesset.”
Benn and Solomon weighed post-election scenarios, assuming the Jewish opposition parties would reject partnering with the Arab parties, which could lead to new elections or a unity government including both coalition and opposition Jewish parties.
Both are, in Benn’s words, “very bad options” for the bloc headed by former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot. Another election is unlikely to improve the opposition’s position and could well leave it worse off, while Netanyahu has a problematic track record when it comes to reaching out across the political divide.
“The idea of Netanyahu in a national unity government where there is some kind of equal division of power and labor is just absolutely ludicrous,” noted Solomon. The prime minister, she emphasized, “is a person who won't share, as they say in playgroup. He made agreements for rotating prime ministerships in the past, and then just threw it all into the trash can. This is not the kind of person that he is, and his agenda does not work cohabiting with anyone who would call themselves, you know, a liberal Democrat.” This leaves some “very bad options, because in both cases, Netanyahu is in power, regardless of how you call it.”
Read the latest developments and analysis on haaretz.com
Israeli Democracy Has Been Given a Chance. It May Not Get Another
Israel's Worst Election Outcome: No Clear Winner, No Certainty, No Chance for Change
Ignoring the Historic Arab Turnout Is a Self-Inflicted Wound for Israel's Liberal Bloc
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As the hours count down before Israelis head to the polls, and Israeli high-ranking officers warn that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may want to strike Iran before Tuesday's election - the stakes are clearly high. But they are perceived as being even higher for one political camp, according to Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, speaking on the final Haaretz Election Podcast ahead of Tuesday’s election.
"When people ask, 'Do Israelis see this as life and death?' - the answer is yes - for opposition voters," said Scheindlin, a veteran political strategist, pollster and Haaretz columnist.
She described the mood at a Saturday night opposition election rally - hammering home the need to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government as "somewhat celebratory, but also a lot of anxiety. I heard a lot of people saying, 'I'm here, but I'm scared.'"
Together with fellow columnist Joshua Leifer - who admitted to being "very anxious" and "very nervous ahead of Election Day" - and podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Scheindlin assessed the late-breaking developments on the eve of the election which appears - according to the final election polls - doomed to result in a deadlock.
"We are in for a long time of coalition wrangling, unless we see some sort of late-stage surprise surge," Scheindlin said.
Read the latest developments on haaretz.com.
IDF Brass Fears Netanyahu May Launch Iran Offensive Before Tuesday's Election
As the Hard Right Fears Historic Defeat, Armed Settler Convoys in Tel Aviv Carry a Message
Here Are Some of the Horrors Brought Upon Us by Israel's 37th Government
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