The Promised Podcast

A weeks and a bit before elections, Don Futterman, Noah Efron and Haaretz uber-reporter Judy Maltz, in an act of political empathy and imagination, ask for each of the parties to the Left of the Likud, why might someone vote for them. Looking for the extra segment? --Why Vote for the Joint List?-- Has the Joint List just violated Israel's longest standing taboo, the one that says Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Israelis can never be true political allies? --Why Vote for the Democratic Union?-- Is the "Democratic Union" Israel's only party with the guts to say, with Chicken Little, that the sky is falling? --Why Vote for Labor-Gesher?-- Labor-Gesher says, "Imagine a world where the party that founded the country was not arrogantly Ashkenazi-centric, and where a Labor Party actually cared about workers." Will that get them votes? --Why Vote for Blue-&-White?-- Blue-&-White says, "We deserve a government that is parve, lackluster, colorless, ho-hum, devoid of both bells and whistles." Why will more than a million Israelis vote for them? --What's Killing Israel's Lone Soldiers?-- For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss Judy Maltz's remarkable reporting of the alienation and spiritual ennui of "lone soldiers," kids who go into the army as if it's a cool, gap-year program. And, introducing, the future of Israeli singer-songwriting, Soundflower (aka, Lior Doron)! Music Soundflower, AKA Lior Doron (Look for her on Soundcloud) Hopeless The Hit I'm in Control

Two weeks and a bit before elections, Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron, in an act of political empathy and imagination, try to figure who votes for each of Israel's right-wing parties, and why. (Next week, we do the same thing for the parties on the left.) Looking for the extra segment? Who the Hell Would Vote for Shas?!? Why will hundreds of thousands of Israelis vote for the ultra-Orthodox, Sefaradi Shas Party? Who the Hell Would Vote for Shaked?!? Who votes for the to-the-right-of-the-Likud Yemina Party, and why? Who the Hell Would Vote for the Likud?!? Why will more than a million Israelis vote for Netanyahu and the Likud? (Hint: there are lots of good reasons.) Who the Hell Would Vote for Lieberman?!? Why will hundreds of thousands of Israelis vote for the squat, severe, plain-spoken Moldovan-born Avigdor Lieberman? Is Stav Shaffir Right? Is Israel's Left an Ally of America's Left? For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss an odd essay in the Forward by the woman destined to lead Israel's Left, Stav Shaffir, about why BDS sorts are anti-progressive, and how Israel's left is a crucial ally of America's left. What, exactly, is she trying to say and do? Plus, the sui-generis music of "Let's Mars"! Music Let's Mars, from their new, debut record, Always 15 Minutes Late Carajito (with Subliminal) History Fast (with Shaanan Street)

Haaretz-writer and media-whiz Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida, Allison Kaplan Sommer, and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Looking for the extra segment? Is Netanyahu Done? Hemingway said, folks go bankrupt gradually, then all at once. Has PM Netanyahu lost his political power in the same way? Brits, Canucks, Aussies, Kiwis, Saffers, Rhodies, Paddies, Scots & Yanks There's a new group aiming to politically empower English-speaking Israelis, on the theory that we've got a thing or two to teach everyone else. Do Israel's Brits, Yanks and Aussies offer a way out of the country's political mess? Boys on TV What are we to make of the heart-rending Israeli HBO series about the 2014 murders of Jewish kids by Palestinians and a Muslim kid by Jews, that forces us to doubt a lot of what we thought about ourselves? Does HBOs "Our Boys" challenge everything we thought we knew about ourselves? Our Favorite Getaway Spots in Israel For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra segment, we jammer about some of our favorite vacation spots in Israel. All this and the uncategorizable vocal genius of Faye Shapiro! Music Faye Shapiro, in honor of her brand new, first album, Elef Nishikot Shabbat Shalom Lamah Hitahavti? Simi Libech Adamhuu

Israel Studies scholar and professor Sara Sara Hirschhorn, activist, Haaretz-writer and media-whiz 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. Looking for the extra segment? Carmen and the Devil Is Israel's Labor Party, once the epicenter of toxic Ashkenazihood, the new Shas? Two Tales of Settlements Were we wrong all along about Israel's settler movement? Do the Ends Justify the Mean? Is being a kind-of-a-dick to the Prime Minister's kid justified, because the Prime Minister is kind-of-a-dick to the rest of us? Burn It Down to Build It Up For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss whether or not the time has come to burn our syllabi, rip up our lecture notes, and change the way Israeli universities work from the bottom up. All this and the hippest-hoppest rap of Numi! Music Numi (Numi being Noam Cohen) Zeh Lo Ani Bayit Esh Zot she-Ahavti

Roving Mid-East Reporter Naomi Zeveloff, Tel Aviv Review host Gilad Halpern and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Looking for the extra segment? The Elephant Has Left the Building One thing not being debated ahead of Israel's elections is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The elephant in the room seems to have left the building. Why? The Autocrat Whisperer Does Prime Minister Netanyahu want voters to see him as an "autocrat whisperer"? Bussed Are the Right, for Theirs Are the Beaches and Cinemas There is a revolution underway, bringing public transportation to Israeli cities on the Sabbath for the first time ever. Why is the Likud leading the charge? The Great Renaissance of English Language Media in Israel For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss with author Gilad Halpern his latest Tel Aviv Review of Books essay arguing that, as international media collapsed around us, English language media in Israel had a great renaissance. What accounts for this surprising development? All this and the Ethiopian-Mizrahi pop of Moti Taka. Music Moti Taka Ba Li Lirkod (בא לי לרקוד) Boom Boom (בום בום) Tukur (טוקור) Hitahavti ba-Ketzinah Sheli (התאהבתי בקצינה שלי)

Don Futterman, Noah Efron and Human-Rights Attorney, Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Looking for the extra segment? Left Behind? Are two parties on Israel's left better than one? Right Fever Is one party to the right of the Likud better than two? Free to Be You and Me A Jerusalem court finds that a man can be sued for failing to tell his fiancé-cum-wife that he prefers sex with men. Where does a right to privacy end, and an obligation of honesty begin? The Case That's Testing Israel's Courts For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss with star Human Rights attorney Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, the Ministry of Interior's efforts to deport Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch Director for Israel and Palestine, on the grounds that, by supporting BDS, he is working for Israel's destruction. The case reached the Supreme Court this week, sort of. All this and the uncategorizable music of Banot ha-Tom! Music Banot ha-Tom Taziz (תזיז) Yaffo (יפו) La-Oof Rahok (לעוף רחוק) Pisah shel Osher (פיסה של אושר)

Don Futterman, Noah Efron and journalist and host of the spectacular "The Branch" podcast about Jewish-Palestinian Coexistence, Dina Kraft discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Looking for the extra segment? Labor Unions and Disunions The Labor Party says "Yes" to merging with a party on the center-right, and "No" to merging with parties on the Left. A brilliant stratagem or a strategic blunder? The Ambassador from Soda Stream Israel's Foreign Ministry retools its diplomats to promote Israeli companies, not policies. Is diplomacy dead? Let Television be Television Israel's national-treasure folk-singer, Chava Alberstein, retools a beloved protest song as an ad for cable and internet service. Is this the end of culture as we know it, or have we maybe lost a little perspective? Can Stories of "Co-existence" Teach Us Something New? For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss what Dina Kraft has learned from podcasting stories of coexistence, and what she (and we) think of the common-on-the-left-but-still-annoying-as-Hell assertion that there is something unproductive and even untoward about all the efforts to promote "co-existence" because these efforts imply that if we just learned to know and love each other, intractable political problems would suddenly become tractable. Music Danny Gilboa Shavir (featuring Amnon Fisher & Oshrat Pahina) Latet Yomuledet (with Izi Gaon) Rah ve-Tov

Don Futterman, Noah Efron, and the scholar-host of the brilliant feminist Yiddish podcast Vaybertaytsch, Sandy Fox discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Looking for the extra segment? Everyone from Benny Gantz to Ayman Odeh Is a true Jewish-Arab partnership possible on the Israeli Left? Goodbye to All That! Forty Jewish-American Rabbis, professors and activists say it's time to say goodbye to Zionism once and for all. Do they have a point? Where We Live, There Is Our Country! For 68 years, there were Bundists in Israel – socialist, internationalist Yiddishists. Finally, only now, their Tel Aviv headquarters is shuttering. But what is their legacy? American Jewish Summer Camp For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss what Sandy Fox discovered over long years of scholarly archival study about the golden age of American Jewish summer camp, the results of which research will soon turn up in an as-yet-to-be-named book in a bookstore near you! All this and the New Wave Klezmer of Oy Division! Music The New-Wave Klezmer of Oy Division: Slushay Zemlyak (with Psoy Korolenko) Ekh Vel Zayn (with Psoy Korolenko) Dumay! Oy Gewald a Ganef

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. Looking for the extra segment? You Don't Have to Be Religious to Be Religious, but It Helps Can Israel's religious right be led by a very secular, very feminist woman? Eilat: Hot, Fraught & Overwrought What, if anything, ought to be done about the woes of southern resort city Eilat? Je m'accuse A week after we buried another Ethiopian kid killed by a police officer, the eleventh in two decades, what accounts for our omnipresent racism? As Tolstoy never said, "Every racist society is racist in its own way." What is our way of being racist? Guilt by Association? For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the brief but vicious twitter war between Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak over Barak's perhaps remunerative relationship with billionaire sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Should consorting with mega-rich scumbags be an election issue for the leader of the new Democratic Israel party? All this and the soulful folk (or is it folky soul) of TamaRadah! Music TamaRadah: Ai Sham (אי שם) Abba AyYahoi (אבבה איהוי) Tehushat ha-Zilut (תחושת הזילות) Zeh ha-Geshem (זה הגשם)

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. Looking for the extra segment? Parties Like It's 1999 Israel's Left recombobulates itself by returning to yesterday's leaders, all of whom are men. What explains this sudden lurch to the Father-Knows-Best ghosts-of-politics past? Is a Dream a Lie if it don't Come True? Ten years have passed since PM Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed a Palestinian state in his famous "Bar Ilan Speech." Did that speech have an enduring impact on Israeli politics, or was it just a thing that happened long ago and then dissipated into the fetid vapors of time? Protean Protein Is a key to Middle East peace … hummus? "Silence!" For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the Supreme Court's response to a suit brought against an ultra-orthodox radio station by the Reform Movement's Israel Religious Action Center and the religious feminist group Kolech, hoping to assess against the station for refusing to air women's voices from 2009 to 2011, a fine so great that the broadcast towers would fall silent forever. The court said, basically, do a brother a solid and let the station survive, and we'll try to figure out whether a brother who shuts up a sister even deserves a solid. All this and the power punk joy of Tabarnak and Yishai Berger! MusicTabarnak, in honor of Yishai Berger's terrific set at Levontin 7 last week: Ha-Shir Ha-Chi Tov Hu Ba-Olam Ya Sefel Le-Ha-Eef Mashehu Kmo 400 Taklitim Lihitraot Ya Hnunim