Haaretz Podcast

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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The glut of new small parties throwing their hats in the ring is increasing the chances that after the voters have their say, there will not be a decisive win either for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition parties determined to topple him.
"All of these new little parties are headed by individuals who are placing their ego above the political outcome. They can't possibly join an existing party – they have to try to start their own," said Haaretz columnist Dahlia Scheindlin on the Haaretz Election Podcast.
As a result, the voters may not end up determining who will be prime minister, and instead a “little gang” of “six, seven or eight male party leaders” will meet and decide the make-up of the coalition, Scheindlin said.
Scheindlin joined fellow columnist Esther Solomon and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the results of the Likud primaries, opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot’s declaration that there will be no Palestinian state on his watch, what appears to be a politicized decision by Israel’s internal security service not to officially protect Eisenkot, and how Netanyahu, stuck in the polls, appears to be dangerously “firing in all directions” in order to find a way to victory.
"He has the capacity to aggravate, or provoke, or exploit any number of crises that are happening in this region,” Solomon said.
Little, however, Scheindlin pointed out, appears to be moving the needle for the prime minister. He has shown that "you can attack Iran and attack Iran again. You can bomb Lebanon. You can kill Hassan Nasrallah, and nothing has changed the polls."
Read more:
The U.S. Peace Plan Is Grave for Gaza and Great for Netanyahu
Netanyahu Rival Eisenkot Vows No Palestinian State: 'Not Now, Not in Next Government'
Reality Check: As the Election Nears, Haaretz Debunks Israeli Politicians' Biggest Lies
The Petty Politics Destroying Israel's Opposition
Likud's Casualty List: The Netanyahu Loyalists Headed Home After a Brutal Primary
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Longtime editor-in-chief of The New Yorker David Remnick joins the Haaretz podcast and guest host Joshua Leifer for a wide-ranging conversation about his more than three decades of reporting on Israel and Palestine, the role of the journalist in a populist age, and the future of U.S.-Israel relations.
"The only way to tell this story is to try to tell it truthfully and to know that you will fail," Remnick wrote in his report on the aftermath of October 7, 2023, published just two weeks after the attacks. In this episode, Remnick recalls what it was like to walk through the ruins of Kibbutz Be'eri and what was then the great trepidation of the nature of Israel's impending response.
Remnick returned to report on Israel and Palestine four more times over the last three years, and in July, The New Yorker published Remnick's profile of Gadi Eisenkot, currently the frontrunner among the candidates challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Remnick and Leifer discuss whether Eisenkot has what it takes, and what an Eisenkot-led government might do differently. Can the damage wrought by the current government be undone?
After Israel's destruction of Gaza, and amid spiraling settler violence in the West Bank, what remains of the prospects for a just resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians?
Read more:
Netanyahu's Biggest Challenger: Who Is Gadi Eisenkot and What Does He Stand For?
Inside Likud Territory, Eisenkot Is Quietly Gaining Ground. Will It Be Enough to Defeat Netanyahu?
The American Jewish Establishment Is Defending an Israel That No Longer Exists
Bibi Cried Wolf? Americans' Trust in Israeli Intelligence Is Stooping to Irreparable Lows
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The battle over the Likud Party primaries this week was a clear example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserting his dominance over his political kingdom, Haaretz senior analyst Esther Solomon told the Haaretz Election Podcast.
Netanyahu had unsuccessfully tried to cancel the always robust Likud primaries altogether – ultimately compromising by pushing through a measure where he chose the candidates for nine key spots on the top of the list. He included a spot for Oren Dobronsky, an Israeli high-tech entrepreneur and hummus chain owner in Silicon Valley who has not lived in Israel for years, has no political experience and made headlines recently for calling U.S. President Donald Trump a “morally corrupt piece of shit” in the recent past.
The prime minister’s message was clear, Solomon said: "This is no longer about the Likud party. This is about me."
Solomon joined Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the top stories from the last week week, which included controversy over efforts by expat Israelis to travel en masse to vote to replace the current government, and a proposal by opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot to form a minority government even if he doesn’t have a decisive election victory.
Also on the podcast, Maltz described her encounters as she travels across Israeli cities to take their pulse ahead of the election, including Kfar Chabad, where, she quipped “only the Messiah is more popular” than far-right extremist Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Arab city of Umm-al-Fahm, where she said it was “very sad” that many young well-educated Palestinian citizens of Israel said they were so alienated that they were not planning to vote.
Read more:
Netanyahu's New Election Ploy Smells of Desperation and Elon Musk
In Monday's Likud Party Primary, Netanyahu Hopes to Get Rid of Lawmakers Whom He Had Nurtured in the Past
Netanyahu Changes Likud Rules to Let Far-right Politician Run in Primary
'People Here Like Ben-Gvir's Tough-guy Approach': Will This Netanyahu Stronghold Near Gaza Go Further Right?
'We Need to Finish the Job': The Israeli Town Where Itamar Ben-Gvir Ranks Second Only to the Messiah
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Nearly three years since Israel’s war in Gaza began, and despite a lengthy case brought before the High Court of Israel, journalists remain unable to enter the Strip to report independently on the widespread destruction, the ongoing humanitarian crisis and the IDF’s occupation of more than half of the Strip.
Histadrut national union official Peter Lerner, who served as the IDF’s Spokesperson to International Media until 2024, says the IDF’s reluctance to allow journalists in is a symptom of the war being drawn out and Israel’s increasing isolation from the global community.
“The time passed two years ago,” to let journalists enter Gaza, Lerner said. “I recommended it to my superiors, that holding out this long is not beneficial to Israel; it just superimposes the fact that people will say that you're hiding something. …The fact is that there will be negative stories about the negative consequences of war.”
Lerner and host Amir Tibon also discussed the reasons why Israeli soldiers passively watch – or even partake – in settler-led attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, and the ways in which the government fuels the total lack of accountability. “When I watch the attacks of these families in their homes, and they’re so helpless – as someone who experienced October 7 very, very close, it’s traumatic to watch," shared Tibon, a longtime resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
State-backed settler violence has also accelerated against journalists in the West Bank, where Haaretz correspondent Matan Golan and photographer Itai Ron were attacked this week by settlers that have besieged homes in Qusra, near Nablus, as IDF soldiers looked on.
Abby Seitz, a features editor at Haaretz, joins the podcast to recount the threats, illegal orders from soldiers and right-out lies that she and reporter Nagham Zbeedat encountered in a single day in the southern West Bank last month. Zbeedat and Seitz reported from Umm al-Khair as the community marked one year since Awdah Hathaleen recorded his own death at the hands of internationally sanctioned settler leader Yinon Levi.
When asked for comment on why Border Police, with the army, dispersed the village’s memorial ceremony, a police spokesperson told Haaretz that it was an “unlawful gathering, which was intended to serve as a demonstration of support for a terrorist who was neutralized” – a statement that contradicts the state’s own stance, as prosecutors filed reckless manslaughter charges against Levi last week.
“This is not uncommon, and it’s increasingly happening against international and Israeli journalists, but it's also been happening against Palestinian journalists for a long time. There are Palestinian journalists right now in administrative detention, held for months and months and months without charges, simply for filming what's been going on” in the West Bank, Seitz said.
Read more:
Taghreed El-Khodary: International Media Is Failing Palestinian Journalists in Gaza
West Bank correspondent Matan Golan: I Was Attacked by Settlers as a Journalist. What the IDF Lets Them Do Will Get Palestinians Killed
IDF Removes Palestinian Families in Qusra as Israeli Settlers Resist Army Operation to End Siege
'Lords of the Land': Israeli Soldiers Describe How Settlers Manage Military Reality in the West Bank
One Year Later: Israel Issues Rare Indictment Against Settler Who Killed Palestinian Activist
A Year After a Settler Shot Awdah Hathaleen, His Village Still Can't Mourn in Peace
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