The Promised Podcast

Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor Miriam Herschlag goes to the demonstrations shaking Jerusalem and the country at their foundations, with her daughter as a guide. Patreon Segment: Skiing the Slopes of the United Arab Emirates For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion, Allison, Ohad and Noah ponder the shocking, stunning, amazing breakthrough with the United Arab Emirates and dream about the wages of peace: swoop-swooping down the powdered ski slope of the Mall of the Emirates. Music Hadag Nahash – Bomba

Maybe no one is a better symbol of how Israel is changing (and did more to cause this change) than Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who died this week at 83. Music Elohai – Kobi Oz Hakitzoti – Elitzur Goldsmith Support the show by becoming a Patron

From deep in summer doldrums, Noah tells the story of one song that is also, in a way, the story of Israel itself. Support the show by becoming a Patron

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to this week's Patreon segment --First and a Half Israel-- Are the people demonstrating each night in front of the Prime Minister's home a new political class, changing all we thought we knew about Israeli politics? --Ron, Pretender to the Throne?-- Is Israel's next prime minister a dyspeptic 76-year-old named Ron? --What Is a Museum of the Land of Israel a Museum Of?-- Q: What do you call a museum that has stamps, fire trucks, ancient pottery, and modern art? A: A gorgeous, enchanting mess (or, The Museum of the the Land of Israel). --Was Israel the Canary in the Coalmine of Cancel Culture?-- For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion, we talk about Matti Friedman's socko new essay in Tablet, "Israel Was Ground Zero for the New Woke Religion: How coverage of the Jewish state became a signifier of the ideological activism that now permeates Western culture." Was Israel the canary in the coalmine of cancel culture? All that and the garageband wonder of The Genders, in a country that doesn't really have garages.

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Reflections on the Revolution in Jerusalem-- Israelis' trust in their leaders has dropped by half in just one month, and each night brings new scenes of police water-cannoning protestors outside PM Netanyahu's house. What happens next? --Diss Engagement-- Fifteen years ago, Israeli soldiers and police dragged Jewish settlers kicking-and-crying from their homes in Gaza. What was the legacy of this "withdrawal to end all withdrawals"? --Is It Ethical to Scold People for Not Wearing a Mask?-- For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion, we take on a question sent in this week to Haaretz's moral "Dear Abby": Is It Ethical to Scold People for Not Wearing a Mask on the Street? The old riddle goes, Q: Why do Israelis not have sex in public? A: Because who needs mobs of people crowding in to tell you what you're doing wrong. What's true for coitus is no doubt true for matters pandemical, but should it be? All that and the keytar genius of Bemet (aka, Hod Moshonov, one of Forbes "30 Under 30")!

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --And It's One, Two, Three, What Are We Fightin' For? (with apologies to both Country Joe and the Fish)-- Huge, angry demonstrations demand that Netanyahu do something about Israel's economic crisis. But what? --Judging Judges: A Judgmental Judgment-- What's wrong with judging judges? --And a River Runs Through It-- A kibbutz bars folks from a nearby town from picnicking on the banks of a river that winds through its grounds. Is that o.k.? --Is There Any Way to Get Away With a Little Getaway?-- For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Summer is here, and we all deserve a vacation. Hotels at the Dead Sea are sold out, and little getaway love-nest cabins up north are getting booked up fast. But is a corona vacation a vacation at all? We share our plans for the summer (concluding that, getaway or no getaway, there's no way to get away). All that and Avoda Zmanit!

Tel Aviv Review impresario Gilad Halpern, Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --From COVID Heroes to COVID Zeros-- How'd Israel go from being COVID heroes to COVID zeros? --Tamar in Tehran-- A twenty-something, computer-hacker genius, Mossad spy goes native in Iran: that's the plot of Israel's newest mega-hit TV series. But what's it tell us about how Israelis see Persian politics and culture? --Be Still, Beinart-- Journalist and public intellectual Peter Beinart says goodbye to the "Two State Solution" for Israel and Palestine. Is he the harbinger, as he writes, of "a new phase of Jewish history"? --Gilad Tells All-- For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra segment, we make the very most out of having Gilad on the show, and ask him about his doctoral research into the history behind The Palestine Post, an English-language daily established in 1932, which later in 1950 became The Jerusalem Post. All that and Lihi Admon (ve-Levavot ha-Kusamak)

Journalist and soon-to-be features editor for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Naomi Zeveloff, wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Does Size Matter?-- Would a small, "symbolic" annexation of lands in the West Bank sidestep the worst consequences of the bigger annexation authorized by the Trump peace plan? --Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer-- As statues of Columbus get toppled in America, and statues of Leopold II get ripped down in Belgium, are there memorial in Israel we'd be better or mothballing or melting down? --Gun, Grenade, Mic & Turntable-- Why 'o why does an Army need a radio station? All that and Roey Rieck and some of Israel's best indie musicians, in a pandemic project called "Ha-Gal ha-Sheni," "The Second Wave"!

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --You're Gay, You Wanna Revolution?-- A new documentary aims to explain the surprising success of the LGBTQA community in Israel. Why are so many LGBTQA folks hating on it? --You Stay to Start a Revolution!-- On a hill in the foothills of Samaria, live eight young, Israeli settler women, aged 13 to 19, alone, without running water and electricity. --You Pray, You Wanna Revolution-- Israel's ultra-Orthodox have a plan, inspired by the pandemic, to make weddings smaller, cheaper and more sustainable. Should the rest of us do the same thing? --Is Roger Waters Giving BDS a Bad Name?-- For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra segment, we discuss the bat-s#!t, anti-semitic meltdown of musician Roger Waters, in an interview with a Hamas-linked news agency. Is he giving BDS a bad name? All that and Russia, Hebrew, Arabic, English hip hop by Shi 360!

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --"The Revolt of Diaspora Jews"?-- Are we seeing a "revolt" of Jews in England, America and elsewhere in the diaspora against Netanyahu's planned annexation of territory in the West Bank? --Rest in Peace?-- It's like a koan: Is a cemetery that stopped being a cemetery more than a hundred years ago still a cemetery? (Answer: When your backhoe turns up 19th century graves, it is.) --Defending the Haganah-- For 28 years, the "Haganah" fought underground to protect Jews in Palestine and to end British rule, and ever since, the organization and its fighters have been lionized in Israel as heroes. Has the time come to focus on the darkest of their deeds? --Let's Talk About Nazis-- For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra segment, we pick up the gauntlet-upon-guantlet laid down first by Tablet Magazine when it interviewed proudly racist and anti-semitic scholar Kevin MacDonald, and then by Haaretz opinion editor Esther Solomon, when she responded that "it is not courage, it is self-abasement, for any jewish publication to call up an anti-Semitic white supremacist and be grateful for their time". Like most Jews, talking about Nazis is our comfort zone, and that's what we do. All that and the enchanting music of Dandan!