The Delingpod: The James Delingpole Podcast Gavriel
Mar 10, 2026
Martin Dave Gavriel, a British-born Jewish writer now living in the Golan Heights and author of the Substack Non‑Zionism. He recounts shifting paths in Judaism and his move to Israel. Conversations touch on ultra‑Orthodox life in Stamford Hill, the role of the Talmud and Noahide laws, Kabbalah’s origins, religious politics, and how faith shapes ethics and Israeli society.
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Why Orthodox Anti-Zionism Evolved
- Traditional Orthodox anti-Zionism had three rationales: Zionism's secular leadership, forbidden rebellion against exile, and pragmatic impracticality of creating a state.
- Success of Israel and post-Holocaust realities eroded some objections, producing religious Zionism or pragmatic non-Zionism.
From Religious Zionism To Disillusionment
- Gavriel became a religious Zionist believing building a Jewish state and eventual temple was true observance of Torah.
- He moved to Israel to help create a theocratic religious state but later became disillusioned when those ideals failed to materialize.
Architecture Reveals Israeli Cultural Failures
- Gavriel criticizes Israeli built environment and aesthetics as reflecting political and cultural failures, not just functional needs.
- He links ugly architecture to socialist origins and the current right's crude militarism fused with religion.
