The Promised Podcast

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Give peace a deadlineThe recent Palestinian proposal to the UN Security Council mandates peace negotiations that must, within a year, produce an agreement ending the occupation and establishing a state in Palestine. A deadline on peace? Where will it lead? Ha’am (is seriously) Itanu?Eli Yishai, the natty ex-Shas leader has just started his own competing party, Ha’am Itanu (The Nation is with Us). This makes us wonder, can Eli Yishai remake Mizrahi politics in Israel? Shabbat Sha-shut-upWhy did a campaign promoting Shabbat observance have everyone grousing and grumbling? We ask, what’s all the fuss about? PlaylistAll songs by Nowadays:Song 14Cold and NewAdvertisementRain

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. #Israelex: Picking teams We discuss the the Labor Party’s efforts to bring all the center-left parties, save one, under its wing. Can the Livni-Herzog rotation really work? How long can the center-left stay on the good side of the ultra-Orthodox? Spotlight on the leaders who impact our world: Moshe Feiglin Moshe Feiglin, the man challenging Netanyahu for leadership of the Likud, wants to annex the territories but make marijuana freely available to us all - an odd amalgam of views. We ask: What makes Moshe Feiglin tick? Privatizing BDS 20 great American scholars, leftist Zionists all, want to sanction individual politicians (like Naftali Bennett) who sustain the occupation. We ask: Are 'personal sanctions' are a good idea. Do desperate times call for desperate measures? Playlist: All songs by the sultry Keren Ann: Lay Your Head DownStephanie SaysFor You & I

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Woman of valor, who will elect? We discuss the campaign to get ultra-Orthodox women on the ballot for the upcoming elections, which encourages people not to vote for religious parties that don’t allow women to run. Does it reflect tectonic changes among the ultra-Orthodox? Give peace a policy At this week’s Saban Forum at Brookings, former Ambassador to the US Michael Oren challenged Labor leader Isaac Herzog on his policy towards the Palestinians and the peace process. What exactly does the mainstream Left plan to do to advance peace? Will the elections make any difference at all? We try to answer the (slightly annoying) questions asked in this NYT piece: Does the prospect of a purely rightist government show how much Israel has changed? Could the coming elections transform Israel’s future, it’s place in the world, and chances for peace? Playlist: All songs by Ha-Zeevot, in honor of their show at Levontin 7 this week: Yoredet ve-OlahBack HomeOmeret LoAdamot Yeveshot

The pall of the poll Israel’s last elections were in January 2013, and now, it seems, the smoke-filled rooms have spoken: We’ll be heading to the polls again very soon. Why do we need elections? Won’t they be all about style over substance? Think about the 2 billion shekel price tag! Equality enshrined? This week, Secretary General of the Labor Party Hilik Bar submitted a bill that would enshrine the language of equality in Israel’s Declaration of Independence as a Basic Law. Is this a sufficient political response to the controversial ‘Nation State’ bill? This is how women wage peace The Women Wage Peace group held its official inaugural event last week, a remarkable train-caravan of 700 women to the embattled southern town of Sderot. How could such a movement impact Israeli politics? Can women do it better? Playlist: All songs by Electric Desert: TfilaMagrebPeshte RomanesteEl Mishkan Beiti

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Much a-Jew about nothing Although apparently about nothing, the 'Jewish State' bill could still become a tsunami that, if nothing else, wrecks the coalition. Could the law help reaffirm the principle of national self-determination, or could it turn Israel into a discriminatory ethnocracy? A 'Likud' for the Left? Is it really possible for the entire center-left to join together into a single 'super-party,' as the center-right did in 1973 with the formation of 'Likud' (meaning 'unification')? We discuss the potential costs and benefits of the left hanging together. Dodging 'the second assault' Miriam Shler, the director of the TA Sexual Assault Crisis Center, joins the Promised Podcast team to discuss the disturbing case of the judge who refused to press charges against her rapist, avoiding what feminists have for years called 'the second assault.' Playlist: All songs by Saz (Sameh Zakout), to remind ourselves that Israel may be a Jewish state, but it’s not just a Jewish state: The Only PlaceYou’re the LoveI Love YouStory

In the shadow of the horrifying murders in a Jerusalem synagogue, Allison, Noah, and Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor Miriam Herschlag discuss: Squirmin’ on the Mount The question of whether Jews should be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount has reentered public discourse since the shooting of Rabbi Yehuda Glick. With this and other tragic recent events, we ask whether we're heading for a full-blown religious war. Henry Kissinger's "peace later" In his acceptance speech for the World Jewish Congress' Theodor Herzl Award, Henry Kissinger remarked that Jews and Palestinians can’t settle their problems while the Middle East is in disarray. Is there something to this rejection of the "peace now" meme? Coalition crises and stinking maneuvrers We all know the love is gone between Prime Minister Netanyahu and his coalition partners. But should Bibi's detractors be getting excited about the chance to unseat him? How likely is a Herzog-Lapid coalition? How is it that Bibi is at once so weak and so strong? Playlist: All songs by Dikla, in honor of the release of her new record, Ve-Eem Preidah: Here Comes The Rain Again (Radio Version) Besameh Boheret Lehiyot Kmo Tzemach Bar

Are we terrorized yet? News analysts and professors are holding forth about whether or not the third intifada has started, and the question of whether or not the killing we’re seeing now will pass soon. So the question remains, how do the recent stabbings and rammings impact folks like us? Can the Bible reduce poverty? MK Ruth Calderon is working to implement the biblical injunction to forgive debts every seven years. She says, “It is an idea that will change the lives of thousands of kids who live beneath the poverty line. An idea that contains within it traditions that pertained in the days of the Talmud, through which people helped their fellows.” Why do guys get an icky charge from Jewesses with guns? There is something majorly messed up about how men think about Jewish women and, especially, Jewish women with guns. This is proved all too true today with a Girls-of-the IDF pinup calendar, and the icky charge guys get from Jewesses with Guns. Playlist: All songs by Mika Karni, in honor of her forthcoming album (and the single she just released) Nashakti Bahurah Kol Dodi Mi Zot Shvil

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Is Bibi rooting (too openly) for his American home team?Prime Minister Netanyahu’s unmasked hope that Republicans capture the US Senate, and whether we won’t pay a price for his partisan enthusiasm. How many generals does it take to reinitiate a peace process? Maybe 106106 Generals call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to initiate a regional peace process. Jewish conversion rules are a'changingAre the new rules about how conversions work in Israel a sign that the Rabbis’ grip is loosening?

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Whither Jerusalem? Recent acts of terrible violence in Jerusalem have had pundits debating whether the Third Intifada has begun. We discuss political analyst Gershom Gorenberg’s suggestion that a divided city can be turned into a bridge between two divided peoples. The President and the precedent We discuss President Rivlin's speech at the annual Kafr Qasem memorial service. What we are to make of a President whom we all know as an advocate of a one-state solution, who is also emerging as the country’s strongest voice for Palestinian rights? The astounding wisdom of the Jewish people The Yavne City Council just voted unanimously to begin work on a museum to be called 'The Hall of the Wisdom of the Jewish People,' in which 120 Jewish geniuses are to be memorialized. Is it time to drop the 'Jews are so smart' trope? Playlist: All songs by Mira Awad: Singing My Song Cloud All I Want We Can Work It Out (With Achinoam Nini)

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Palestinian statehood and the tale of two lefties With the dust settling on the British Parliament's Palestinian vote, we consider the two leftist models for dealing with the growing international embrace of Palestinian Statehood - one for it, the other against - embodied by MKs Zahava Gal-On and Hilik Bar. The Berlin brouhaha continues to baffle The Olim leBerlin Facebook group caused a tidal wave of anger: Anger that groceries are so expensive in Israel, and anger at the people willing to emigrate (especially to the site of such painful Jewish memories) just for cheaper 'Milky.' What's it all about? The Jewish watchdog: Saving Soviet Jews We discuss the ethos behind the recently-divulged 1990 Israeli plan to invade the USSR to save Russian Jews: What does it say about the Israeli psyche? Is this sense of responsibility towards Jews around the world, wherever they may be, still alive today? Playlist: All songs by the post-punk genius of Morah Machlifah: Lo Tsarich Tagid Li Shir Al HaTkufa Beton