Haaretz Podcast

The stunning triumph of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a German state election represents a true “challenge to democracy” and has shaken the country’s Jewish community, said author and activist Dr. Ofer Waldman, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast
“It's the first time that a right‑extremist party has had such a landslide victory in Germany,” said Waldman, who heads the Heinrich Boll Foundation office in Tel Aviv.
Haaretz writer and editor David Issacharoff, who joined Waldman on the podcast for a discussion of the election results, said that state of Saxony-Anhalt, which gave 44 percent of its vote to the controversial AfD party, is populated by voters who “feel abandoned, forgotten, and very isolated,” blaming the state and mainstream parties for their situation and channeling their resentment in an extremist political direction.
This is worsened, both Waldman and Issacharoff said, by the fact that East Germany was not part of the post-Holocaust democracy education push in the West. "Keeping Jewish memory there is a real struggle of individuals in that state, and they're up against real forces of neo‑Nazis,” Issacharoff noted,
Both commentators pointed to the contrast between the expressed deep worry and concern of the German Jewish community regarding AfD antisemitism, and the resounding “utter silence” coming from the Israeli government – together with comments from Israel’s ambassador in Berlin during the election campaign that highlighted antisemitism on the left, while downplaying the AfD’s positions.
"When Israel and its representative in Germany focus all the fire towards the left, then they're totally absolving the right from its responsibility for antisemitism. And when the representatives of the Jewish state say that, it matters in Germany," Issacharoff said.
Waldman added the source of the dissonance was “what is perceived as a mutual enemy” by Israel’s far-right government.
“The AfD is perceived as the enemy of the Muslim community in Germany and, as such, a possible ally to the current Israeli administration,” Waldman said.
Read more:
German Jews 'Appalled' by Historic AfD Win as Israel Avoids Direct Condemnation
The AfD's Victory Shatters Germany's Illusions of Immunity to the Far Right
Several European States Clarify Settlement Trade Restrictions Depend on EU Action
The Far-right German Party AfD Says It Has Nothing Against Jews. This Book Proves Otherwise
Inside the German pro-Israel Lobby's Campaign to Defund UNRWA
Who Stole All the Holocaust Memorial Stones on Oct. 7, Shaking This Quiet East German Town?
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A last-minute scramble before the party lists for Israel’s elections are finalized on September 8 has led to the disappearance of small parties, politicians switching parties and the dismissal of veteran ultra-Orthodox Knesset members by leaders who want to “refresh” their party lists.
On the Haaretz Election Podcast, correspondents Linda Dayan and Etan Nechin reviewed the week’s big changes – along the return of October 7 conspiracy theories and the intermingling of U.S. and Israeli political campaigning with host Allison Kaplan Sommer.
Dayan noted the leap by controversial Likud MK Tally Gotliv to the extremist Otzma Yehudit party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, pointed out that the move “shows how much Likud has absorbed toxic far-right populism.”
The drastic shrinking of Yesh Atid as its leader Yair Lapid has played second fiddle to more popular center-right figures like Benny Gantz, Naftali Bennett and Gadi Eisenkot, Nechin said, “represents the limitations of liberal Jewish Israeli society. ... There’s a segment of Israeli liberal society which deems itself very liberal and very open‑minded, but would rather cede to the right than explore new political possibilities."
Nechin also discussed his decision to interview controversial streamer Hasan Piker and why, despite pushback, he felt it was important to be the first in the Israeli media to do so.
"His platform, where young people – mostly men – might hear for the first time the term ‘anti‑Zionist’ or ‘settler colonialism’ or learn about Israel… makes him a person that is worth talking to," he said.
Read more:
A Guide to Israel's Key Election Deadline – and How It Could Decide Netanyahu's Fate
Bennett and Lapid Bid to Oust Netanyahu Again as They Unveil Joint Slate
As Election Focus Shifts to October 7, Netanyahu Pivots to Conspiracy Theories
Hasan Piker Talks Hamas, anti-Zionism and Why Americans Are Fed Up With Israel
A Convicted Terror Inciter and a Man Who Killed a Palestinian: Meet Ben-Gvir's Election Team
The One Thing Hasan Piker Could Say to Begin Healing Ties With U.S. Jews
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Vice President JD Vance’s charm offensive failed to completely win over skeptical GOP donors who gathered this week in Las Vegas at the Republican Jewish Coalition National Leadership Summit, Haaretz’s Washington D.C. correspondent Arno Rosenfeld told the Haaretz Podcast.
There were mixed reactions to Vance’s speech to the crowd of 1,000, meant to be off the record, but leaked publicly, in which the vice president attempted to reassure those attending that, despite his isolationist leanings and association with media figures who regularly peddle antisemitic tropes, that he believed in the “mutually beneficial” relationship between the U.S. and Israel, that he was not “abandoning” the Jewish state and appreciated “American Jewish contributions to the United States.”
Vance’s words were a bit more “weird and convoluted” in a strange discussion of “blood guilt” – a term popularized by right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson, as a variation of the term “blood libel” with a slightly different meaning.
“It was quite telling that Vance was using a framework that Carlson has come up with to talk about antisemitism,” Rosenfeld said, at a moment in which even the most conservative Jews have been disturbed by Carlson’s conspiratorial theories.
On the podcast, Rosenfeld, who covered the three-day event, also spoke with host Allison Kaplan Sommer about the “anxiety” among some present over the dramatic drop in support for Israel among young conservatives, but the lack of any genuine strategy to address it, as well as the primary targets of the attack lines of the speeches: Muslims and socialists.
Rosenfeld said he was particularly “struck by the degree of just sort of open animosity toward Muslims and Islam” at the gathering, “because of how much of a focus there was on antisemitism and on extremism and on radicalism and on hate. You would get that in one breath, and then in the next breath, there would be talk about how we need to defeat ‘Islamo-fascism’ and the ‘red-green alliance’ between socialism and Islam.”
Read more:
JD Vance Seeks to Assuage Republican Jews Worried About His Views Toward Israel
GOP Jews Rail Against Democrats at Vegas Confab, but Worry About Their Own Party's Israel Drift
Israel's U.S. Envoy Yechiel Leiter Says Government Is Failing to Stop Jewish Terrorism in West Bank
Michigan Jews Help Form 'Democrats for Mike Rogers,' With Little Talk of Israel
JD Vance's 'Communion' Gives Readers a Chronicle of Unconvincing Conversions
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Nothing is helping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current coalition boost its standing in the polls, and it is clear that the premier is “panicking,” said Haaretz columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.
Scheindlin joins Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the entrance of a new right-wing party led by ex-general Ofer Winter into the race, joining the plethora of “pop-up” right-wing parties that are causing Netanyahu’s alarm at the possibility that one or more will fall under the electoral threshold, and the precious votes in his camp will be wasted.
"Netanyahu is begging the right wing not to fragment the parties. He's warning the right wing: If you do the wrong thing, the entire world explodes," Scheindlin said, ahead of the September 8 deadline for merging with other parties and submitting final lists.
On the podcast, Maltz shares what she’s found as she visits cities and towns around Israel taking the pulse of voters. Kiryat Shmona – Israel’s most targeted city, devastated by three years of war – is still grappling with the 2023 evacuation that is proving to be somewhat permanent, Maltz says. “People are pretty angry and often talk about themselves being abandoned, unseen and forgotten.”
Still, like the Likud strongholds along the Gaza border that she has visited, Maltz found many clinging to party loyalties despite their disappointment with Netanyahu and his government. Some favor non-Netanyahu right-wingers, but others remain loyal to the prime minister despite the devastating events that happened on his watch.
"Many of them subscribe to these conspiracy theories about the army in cahoots with Hamas together orchestrating October 7 to make Netanyahu look bad," Maltz explained.
Read more:
Ex-IDF General and Far-right Hardliner Ofer Winter Reveals New Party Ahead of Israel's Election
Analysis by Dahlia Scheindlin | Two Months Out, Netanyahu's Bloc Is Stuck in Polls. But All the Rest Is a Mystery
By Smashing a Palestinian Monument, an Israeli Far-right Lawmaker Brought West Bank Reality to Light
Reality Check: As the Election Nears, Haaretz Debunks Israeli Politicians' Biggest Lies
'Israel on Steroids': Arad Foreshadows What Another Netanyahu Victory Might Look Like
'People Here Like Ben-Gvir's Tough-guy Approach': Will This Netanyahu Stronghold Near Gaza Go Further Right?
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Israel's controversial strike on an airbase in northern Syria close to Turkey was "first and foremost a message to the United States" that Turkish military penetration deeper into Syrian territory "can be turned into a real and total war," and any U.S. policy that tolerates it is "not sustainable," according to Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast.
The attack has been criticized as an election ploy by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Yanarocak said such considerations may have played a role in its timing, he stressed that Turkey's ambitions in post-Assad Syria are a legitimate source of deep concern for Israel. Israel's military establishment sees them as a substantial threat and pushed for the attack after Turkey ignored warnings.
The past three years of war have shifted the balance of power in Turkey's favor with the weakening of both Iran and the Gulf states, he explained in a conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer. He discussed the bold ambitions of the country led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the key role Syria plays in them.
"The public discourse in Turkey is neo-Ottomanism," Yanarocak said. "Putting it more familiar to the American ears: 'Make Turkey Great Again' … Turkey is thinking very big."
Read more:
From Iran to Turkey, Netanyahu Is on the Hunt for New Fronts to Ignite
Netanyahu Warns Turkey's Erdogan Against Military Expansion in Syria, but Hopes a Warning Is Enough
Attacking Erdogan or Clinging to the Status Quo? Israel's Turkey Paradox
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