Haaretz Podcast

In a special investigation on a "revolution" that has taken place over the past three years, Haaretz reporters Yarden Michaeli, Matan Golan and Yaniv Kubovich detailed the push to restore and drastically expand Israeli presence in the northern West Bank that was part of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan in 2005.
On the Haaretz Podcast, Michaeli discusses how the settler movement and far-right politicians have spent the 20 years since the disengagement took place planning how to execute their "return" to four West Bank settlements located in the largest contiguous area of Palestinian population in the area.
With the ascent of the most far-right government in history in 2022, members of the movement have used their power and influence in what is essentially "the settlers' government" to "return big time," Michaeli said.
In the newly published Haaretz investigation, "Undoing History," Michaeli and his team reveal how 18 new settlements and eight new army bases are cutting through the largest contiguous Palestinian population in the West Bank.
The comprehensive effort includes military deployments, new bases and checkpoints, road construction, land expropriations, the displacement of more than 32,000 residents from three refugee camps and the terrorizing of daily Palestinian life in what senior military officials warn could destabilize an already volatile region.
Every aspect of the plan, Michaeli warned, is "bad news" and "harmful" to the Palestinians living there, and that the infrastructure in place "will be very hard to remove" – undermining the Oslo Accords and the possibility of a two-state solution.
Read more:
Undoing History: As the World Watched Gaza, Settlers Charged Ahead in the West Bank. A Clash Is Imminent
Foreign Ministry Rejects Smotrich's Claim He Axed 1997 Hebron Accord With PA, as Israel Takes Municipal Powers From Palestinians
How Israel Is Using Archaeology to Advance West Bank Annexation
Former PM Ehud Olmert: Israel Is Conducting a Systematic Campaign of Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in the West Bank
'Nobody's Born a Soldier': The Israeli Teens Refusing the Military Draft Say They Can Take the Backlash
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As Israelis focused on the life-and-death issues around conflicts with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, the Netanyahu government has slowly but steadily progressed in its campaign to eliminate the gatekeepers of liberal democracy in order to consolidate the power of elected politicians, constitutional law expert Prof. Adam Shinar told the Haaretz Podcast.
The steps it has taken were “not exactly the package” of radical reforms it proposed in 2023 that brought hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets, Shinar said, but they are firmly marching Israel in the direction of a weakened judiciary, civil service and media, by putting more power in the hands of the ruling parties.
Initially, after October 7, the push for a judicial coup ground to a halt. But as the war continued, explained Shinar, a professor at Reichman University, changes were still made – if not directly through legislation, then by the appointment of Netanyahu loyalists in key positions.
"The government saw an opening. It said, 'Hey, we can do many, many things. The public is distracted, the public is concerned about other things, and we can do a lot.”
If Netanyahu remains in power after the fall elections, Shinar predicted, the push for a total judicial overhaul will return “on steroids.”
To succeed in moving Israel further from the democracy he emphasized, "You don't have to dismantle everything, it's enough that you dismantle several key components – limiting judicial review and changing the way the attorney general is appointed. … That's 60 to 70 percent of the way.”
Read more:
Haaretz Explainer: What Are the Judicial Overhaul Bills About, and Can the High Court Strike Them Down?
With the Election Clock Ticking, Netanyahu's Coalition Is Pushing Contentious Judicial Overhaul Bills
Anti-government Protests Take Place Across Israel, Five Arrested
Knesset Grants Likud Lawmaker Immunity After She Exposed Identity of Shin Bet Agent
When Roman Gofman Came to Israel, He Was a 'Stinking Russian.' Now He's Set to Head the Mossad
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Israel is in a strategically weakened position – and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take a hard political hit if reports on the details of U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding are accurate, Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer said on the Haaretz Podcast.
Netanyahu had been “riding high,” planning to face Israel’s upcoming elections in the fall having compensated for his failures that led to October 7 by boldly “reconfiguring the map of the Middle East, and disassembling Iran's proxy network of Hezbollah and Hamas, and taking on the Iranian regime itself,” Leifer said.
The Israeli leader thought “his legacy [would] be rehabilitated by those wars. Fast forward to where we are now, and that's not the case, and he’s having to confront that,” Leifer added. “Strategically, Israel's in a terrible place, where the Iranian regime is stronger than it was, and it is now able to enforce a new kind of equation where Israeli freedom of movement is limited by the potential threat of ballistic missiles from Iran – which wasn't the case prior to October 7.”
Netanyahu, Leifer said, has been “backed into a corner” on all of Israel’s fronts – Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and now Iran. He must follow Trump’s dictates and has turned Israel into “a total vassal state of the U.S.” and “Trump’s lapdog.” If he were to defy Trump, he runs the risk of losing American support, which could endanger the country even more.
Read more:
What You Need to Know About the U.S.-Iran Deal – and What It Means for Israel
Report: Billions in Frozen Iranian Assets May Be Released Under U.S.–Iran Deal
Israeli Withdrawal From Lebanon Not Part of U.S.-Iran Deal, White House Official Says
'Don't Bullshit Us, Trump': Netanyahu Loyalists Rage at 'Treacherous' United States Over Iran Deal
Netanyahu Says Israel to Remain in Security Buffer Zones in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria After U.S.-Iran Deal Signed
Amos Harel: The Iran Fiasco Is Netanyahu's Biggest Failure Since October 7
Read more analysis from Haaretz's Joshua Leifer
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When Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to march in New York City’s Israel Day parade - the first mayor of the city to do so in over 60 years – “did not surprise” Rabbi Josh Weinberg, who participated in the parade. But the liberal Zionist Reform rabbi was surprised to discover that he was marching alongside far-right ministers like Bezalel Smotrich and members of the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party.
Had he known, said Weinberg, Vice President of the URJ for Israel and Reform Zionism, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast, he would’ve held a sign making it clear that “Smotrich’s Zionism does not reflect our ideology at all, and is in fact antithetical to who we are as Jews and Zionists, and even as Americans. His brand of racism, discrimination, xenophobia – everything that he stands for – we want to totally reject while still maintaining our love and support for Israel."
Weinberg added that a statement by Smotrich that the New York event resembled the Jerusalem Day flag march – an event regularly marked by harassment and violence towards Palestinians in the city – made him “want to throw up.”
Also speaking on the podcast, Haaretz's New York correspondent Etan Nechin said that the Israeli ministers in the parade presented their presence as an “act of defiance by the Israeli Knesset and by the Israeli government” to “show” Mamdani.
Assessing the mayor’s relationship with the Jewish community over the first six months of his term, Weinberg praised Mamdani’s initiative to increase spending to secure Jewish institutions with the rise of antisemitism, but regretted his boycott of the parade and his high-profile commemoration of Nakba Day online.
Nechin countered with his belief that Mamdani had taken advantage of harnessing his popularity to take advantage of “this sudden historic opportunity to platform and champion Palestinian voices.” Mamdani, he said, “is a symptom of American public opinion – especially young Americans who are having conversations about Israel and Palestine, but not on Israeli or Jewish terms. It’s something that the Jewish community and Israelis will need to contend with.”
Read more:
Majority of Americans Hold Unfavorable Opinion of Israel as Confidence in Netanyahu Plummets, Pew Survey Finds
'We're Done Apologizing': Inside the Israeli Far Right's Big Weekend Out in New York
Mamdani 'Offended' by Participation of Far-right Israeli MKs in Israel Day Parade
Nearly Half of Young U.S. Jews Want to Replace Israel With Binational State, Poll Finds
How Trump's Second Term Marks the Ascendance of The New Jewish Orthodox Right
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U.S. President Donald Trump has tired of the Israel-Iran conflict, but a solution remains elusive as missile fire renewed Sunday following an Israeli attack on Beirut that provoked the Iranian regime.
“I think he's had enough of us,” said Haaretz senior defense analyst Amos Harel, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. “He's fed up with this region. This is taking a lot longer than he thought, and it was less successful than he assumed. He’s paying a huge price at home domestically because of the economic effects, and he doesn't seem that tough anymore.”
Joining Harel on the podcast is former Mossad official Sima Shine, an Iran expert at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, who said that Iran clearly has the advantage in negotiations with the United States towards a long-term cease-fire.
While she said she doesn’t believe that Tehran wants to prolong the war, she said, they will only end the fighting “on their terms.”
“They are much more determined, they are willing to pay the price and therefore, they have the upper hand in negotiations” on the key issues – their nuclear capabilities and access to the Strait of Hormuz, despite the fact that their economic situation is “very bad.”
As a result, she said, she believes that ultimately “Iran will dictate the terms” of any agreement.
Read more:
Israel Strikes Multiple Targets Across Iran, Including Petrochemical Plant
'I Call the Shots': Trump Urges Netanyahu Not to Retaliate After Iranian Missile Attack
UN Nuclear Watchdog Says It's Been Unable to Inspect Iranian Facilities
Report: Pentagon Officials Suspect Israel Tried to Spy on U.S. Officials Involved in Iran Talks
Analysis by Amos Harel | As Israel Tips Back to War With Iran, Netanyahu Gets His Wish
Israel's New 'Iran Spies': Young, Broke and Mostly Clueless
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