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The Times of Israel Daily BriefingDay 673 - Haviv Rettig Gur: When Temple Mount prayer is a call to settle GazaWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. During the Tisha B'Av fast on Sunday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir again made headlines for going up to the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. There were two big differences this time: One, he led a prayer service out loud, and two, he called for the Jewish resettlement of the Gaza Strip. Both aspects of Ben Gvir's trip were highly documented...2025-08-0936 min
Ask Haviv AnythingEpisode 35: Solving hunger in Gaza with Prof. Yannay SpitzerProfessor Yannay Spitzer is an economic historian who has studied food and hunger. His efforts over the past month to get real reliable data on hunger out of Gaza and publicize it to Israelis, data that is neither delayed nor politicized like the many claims of rampant hunger made over the past 22 months that turned out to be either inaccurate or untrue, helped change the conversation in Israel and surge aid into the strip.Professor Spitzer joins us to explain what went wrong, why Israeli officials thought there was much more food available to...2025-08-0852 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 34: My life in Al-Qaeda, a conversation with Aimen DeanAimen Dean was once a fervent young jihadi fighter, a passionate believer in radical Sunni Islam who had memorized the Quran by 12 and was fighting in the Bosnian jihad by 16.Haviv talked to Aimen about the religious and psychological journey of a young jihadi, his experiences in the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, his recruitment by Bin Laden himself in the mountains of Afghanistan, and his sudden and powerful disillusionment, both political and religious, that led him to become an MI6 spy in Al Qaeda's ranks.They talked about...2025-08-062h 09
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: When Temple Mount prayer is a call to settle GazaWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. During the Tisha B'Av fast on Sunday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir again made headlines for going up to the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. There were two big differences this time: One, he led a prayer service out loud, and two, he called for the Jewish resettlement of the Gaza Strip. Both aspects of Ben Gvir's trip were highly documented...2025-08-0536 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 33: Thoughts for Tisha B’Av - We live in historyOur Patreon subscribers asked for a dvar Torah, a short homily, on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av, which commemorates many of the great tragedies of Jewish history, including and especially the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem millennia ago.Tisha B'Av, Haviv argues, is a window into the Sages' conception of history, their view of the brokenness of the world reflected in the tragedies of history, and the power of the study of history to mend that brokenness.This episode is sponsored by Alex and Betty...2025-08-0331 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 32: Hunger and the Gaza warThere is now hunger in Gaza, widespread and dangerous. It's less dire than Western media claims, but could reach those proportions if it isn't reversed through an aid surge.How did we get to this point? What were Israeli officials thinking?And what does the current crisis tell us about the state of the war?This episode was sponsored by an anonymous sponsor who dedicated it to the bravery of our friend Shaked Haran, whose story is told in episode 5 of this podcast. On...2025-07-3145 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 31: The century-old harbinger of October 7, a conversation with Yardena SchwartzWelcome to a special episode of Ask Haviv Anything. This episode was a live conversation with author Yardena Schwartz taped last week at Martha's Vineyard and hosted by Chabad on the Vineyard.Please note: Patreon subscribers have asked us to address the dramatic pivot in the IDF's strategy in Gaza and the question of widespread hunger there. We're now working on such an episode to provide an analysis and overview of what's happening and what it means. As always, if you have suggestions for topics, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com...2025-07-271h 00Ask Haviv AnythingEpisode 30: How the Middle East broke, a conversation with Hussein Aboubakr MansourHussein Aboubakr Mansour was born and raised in Egypt before fleeing to the United States and dedicating his life to understanding how the Arab world came to be defined by state failure, religious extremism and all the rest of the region's many crises.His conclusions, laid out in a recent essay in the magazine Mosaic, are an extraordinarily innovative new path. It isn't a crisis of internal Islamic failure, as conservative thinkers argue, nor a crisis forged and sustained purely by Western imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and the other nefarious isms of the left-wing lexicon.2025-07-211h 19Ask Haviv AnythingEpisode 29: After the Druze massacre, can Israel make peace with Joulani? A conversation with Druze activist Rania Fadel DeanThe clashes in Sweida in southern Syria this week focused world attention on the plight of the Druze and questions about the nature of the new Syrian government. Videos and claims of atrocities drove hundreds of Golan Druze to rush into Syria to the rescue of their brethren. Israeli strikes in Damascus against Syrian forces raised the stakes and led to questions, including in Israel itself, about how Israel can protect the Druze while not sacrificing an expansion of the Abraham Accords.Rania Fadel Dean comes from a prominent Israeli Druze family. Her organization...2025-07-1755 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 28: The Gaza ParadoxAs hostage talks seem stalled and the war grinds on into its 22nd month, doubts about Netanyahu’s strategy and intentions have become ubiquitous.Netanyahu has given many reasons to distrust him, including his simple refusal to explain the strategy for removing Hamas and Israel’s vision for a post-Hamas Gaza.But it isn’t enough to criticize Netanyahu’s strategy or even to argue he doesn’t have one. To offer an effective critique, critics need to suggest a better strategy for removing Hamas and securing a better future for...2025-07-1545 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 27: Music amidst trauma - a conversation on life in a war with Aya Korem and Adam Ben AmitaiThere are many ways to process and manage painful and difficult times. After the massacre of October 7 and the multi-front war that ensued, many Israelis turned to music, and often to the powerful ballads and melodies of singer-songwriter duo (and married couple) Aya Korem and Adam Ben Amitai.Aya and Adam join us in a special song-laden episode to take a look back at 21 months of pain, resilience, solidarity and, in the end, also hope.This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, who believe...2025-07-0755 min
The Times of Israel Daily BriefingDay 638 - Haviv Rettig Gur on when Israeli extremists go to war - against IsraelWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Dozens of Jewish extremists set fire to a security installation and rioted outside a West Bank base overnight Sunday-Monday, days after an officer in the Israel Defense Forces was assaulted by settlers, who threw rocks and attempted to harm other IDF soldiers. If there’s one institution that a majority of Israelis still get behind, it’s the IDF. So this attack, to many, was a wake...2025-07-0545 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 26: How Iran’s regime subverted Shia Islam - with Hussain Abdul-HussainThe Iranian regime has long claimed to be the bearers of Shia Islam's vision of messianic redemption. The Supreme Leader, who ruled under regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini's ideology of "wilayat al-faqih," or Guardianship of the Jurist, created a new model of a revolutionary conquering Shiism that was previously unknown in Shia Islam, at least in its Arab version.We are joined in this episode by Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a Shia Muslim writer and analyst in Washington DC and research fellow at FDD. Hussain grew up in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War and in Lebanon toward...2025-07-0453 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: When Israeli extremists go to war - against IsraelWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Dozens of Jewish extremists set fire to a security installation and rioted outside a West Bank base overnight Sunday-Monday, days after an officer in the Israel Defense Forces was assaulted by settlers, who threw rocks and attempted to harm other IDF soldiers. If there’s one institution that a majority of Israelis still get behind, it’s the IDF. So this attack, to many, was a wake...2025-07-0145 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 25: What is happening in Gaza?A bombshell Haaretz report last Friday concluded that IDF soldiers were responsible for a great many of the deaths of Gazan civilians outside aid distribution centers in Gaza.What should we make of the report? How reliable is it? And what does it tell us about the army's handling of Gaza and the progress of the war?This episode was sponsored by an anonymous donor in memory of the seven IDF soldiers who were killed on June 24, 2025, during fighting in the southern Gaza...2025-07-0147 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 24: With Iran down, Turkey steps into the breach - a conversation with Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak.(Update: audio issues corrected)Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel. I was an ally and vital trading partner for decades -- until the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the Islamist AKP party, who began pursuing a "neo-Ottomanist" foreign policy of Turkish influence and expansionism in the region, and specifically identified Israel as a long-term ideological enemy.Turkey is now forging alliances on all Israel's borders and looking to found an Islamic defense alliance a la NATO. Earlier this year, Turkish lawmakers formally declared Israel...2025-06-271h 04Ask Haviv AnythingEpisode 23: Iran bows outThere's now a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Who won the war? And what happens now?We offer some preliminary conclusions as the dust settles.This episode is sponsored by the Peters family, Tom, Shevi, Daniel, Ethan, Arielle, Yoni and David, in honor of BeLev Echad, an organization devoted to helping wounded Israeli veterans recover physically, medically and emotionally. To learn about how you too can help Israeli veterans recover, visit Belevechad.nyc.If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us...2025-06-2446 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 22: A new dawn in the Middle East?The United States has struck the Iranian nuclear program, marking a watershed moment for the region.It will take days to determine the scale of the damage and many years to understand the implications of President Trump’s decision. But a few things are already clear. A new relationship was established between the US and its ally Israel that defined a new security architecture for the American-led alliance worldwide. Israel did the heavy lifting, suffered the blowback, and only because it was willing to fight successfully itself was then able to call on America’s un...2025-06-2247 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 21: Why won’t Haredim serve in the IDF? A deep dive with Shmuel RosnerHaredi Israelis make up some 13% of the population but have extremely low rates of workforce participation and military service. The growing welfare subsidies that sustain their communities have increasingly become a source of tensions and frustration for other Israelis, and the multi-front war that began on October 7 has now made their exemptions from military service a major political issue. Israel needs more workers, less welfare spending and many more soldiers to thrive in the future. Can the Haredi community change? What happens if it doesn't?We spoke with Shmuel Rosner, senior fellow at the...2025-06-2059 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 20: Regime change in Iran? What the 1979 revolution can teach us.Twenty-four people have been killed in Israel since the outbreak of the direct Israel-Iran war. The Air Force is busy hunting launchers inside Iran to constrain Iran's ability to fire missiles at Israeli cities. Parts of Tehran are being evacuated as Israel continues to hunt down the IRGC leadership and demolish the country's nuclear program.But enormous questions remain unanswered. Can Israel actually destroy the nuclear program all by itself? If it can't, and America doesn't join the airstrikes, then what's the goal? Could Israel be hoping to achieve regime change?2025-06-1635 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: The existential Israel-Iran WarWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Since 3 am on Friday morning, Israel has been at war with Iran. We begin the program with a pause to look at how each of us sees this Israeli moment. Rettig Gur weighs in on how this war with Iran was inevitable ever since Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and began the ongoing war in Gaza. The IDF chief of staff...2025-06-1418 min
The Times of Israel Daily BriefingDay 617 - Haviv Rettig Gur on the existential Israel-Iran WarWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Since 3 am on Friday morning, Israel has been at war with Iran. We begin the program with a pause to look at how each of us sees this Israeli moment. Rettig Gur weighs in on how this war with Iran was inevitable ever since Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and began the ongoing war in Gaza. The IDF chief of staff...2025-06-1418 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 19: Iran faces a humbler, more dangerous IsraelThe astonishing Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program was the inevitable result of October 7, a day that convinced Israelis they do not actually understand their Islamist foes, cannot deter these foes and therefore cannot allow them to develop the capacity to destroy the Jewish state, no matter the cost.Israel woke up on October 7. Its enemies had been telling it they plan to destroy it for generations; on October 8 it finally started to listen. And the Middle East will never be the same.This episode was sponsored by Brenda...2025-06-1336 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 18: Taking on the ayatollahs with Mark DubowitzThe Trump administration has been trying to hammer out a deal to dismantle Iran's nuclear program. In the last 24 hours, the rhetoric has ratcheted up on both sides, as both Iranian and US officials have warned about impending military action.A week ago, we recorded a conversation with Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, on the Iranian regime's strategy, its nuclear aspirations and what it would take to disrupt those aspirations diplomatically or, failing that, militarily.Can Iran's nuclear program be stopped? Can the regime...2025-06-1254 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 17: The Gaza war began 25 years ago, a conversation with Matti FriedmanLast month marked the 25th anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon after an 18-year guerrilla war that presaged everything we now think of as 21st-century warfare.I spoke to Matti Friedman, veteran of Lebanon and bestselling author of a memoir from that long war, Pumpkinflowers, about the history, the lessons drawn from it and how we're seeing the continuing effects of that conflict in Gaza today. This episode is sponsored by Julie and Frank Cohen, who believe that this podcast is a way to teach our story, because understanding our past and present is...2025-06-0952 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 16: Hamas and the broken promise of 150 years of Islamic reformHamas's rule in Gaza is a theocratic dictatorship. But its roots lie in the 19th-century movement for Islamic reform that believes modernization, science and even political liberalization. How did the great liberalizing theologians of the late 19th century, from Al-Afghani to Abduh to Rida, become Hamas?Join us for a story that raises the startling possibility that the deradicalization of Gaza could come from within.This episode is sponsored by “the Frozen Chosen, Haviv's supportive community from Minnesota."And as has become a podcast tradition, this episode is dedicated to Netta Epstein, who wa...2025-05-3056 min
Unpacking Israeli HistoryTruth vs. Myth in Israeli History with Haviv Rettig Gur (Part 2)Unpacking Israeli History is coming to Chicago on June 8 for its first ever LIVE event! Buy your tickets now. DISCOUNT: Get 20% off your tickets using the discount code UIHCHI. NB: Click "Unlock" and enter the discount code before selecting your tickets.
Host Noam Weissman is joined once again by journalist and analyst Haviv Rettig Gur to unpack not just myths about Israeli security—but the deeper, more existential myths about Israeli identity, morality, and nationhood. In part 2, Haviv and Noam explore two foundational narratives: The IDF as the "Most Moral Army in the World" and the line "...2025-05-2741 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 15: Jerusalem Day, a modern redemption storyJerusalem Day falls on May 25th this year. It is the day of Jerusalem's unification in the 1967 Six Day War, and so a symbol of both Jewish rescue from the genocidal plans of its enemies, a palpable experience of strength and redemption just two decades after Auschwitz, and also a symbol of the perils and moral problems of Jewish power, the day Israel found itself ruling another people.It is the day of the Jews' homecoming to their sacred places, but also of political grandstanding and ideological narrative-making.Yet at its heart, Jerusalem Day is...2025-05-2620 min
The Times of Israel Daily BriefingDay 596 - Haviv Rettig Gur on US President Trump's Mideast visionWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Last week, US President Donald Trump completed a four-day trip to the Middle East, his first official state visit of his second term. He struck economic deals in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and, in lifting sanctions against Syria, made a bold move that could reboot the wartorn country. On May 13, Trump delivered an almost hour-long speech at the Saudi-US...2025-05-2432 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: What did Trump mean when he said...Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Last week, US President Donald Trump completed a four-day trip to the Middle East, his first official state visit of his second term. He struck economic deals in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and, in lifting sanctions against Syria, made a bold move that could reboot the wartorn country. On May 13, Trump delivered an almost hour-long speech at the Saudi-US...2025-05-2032 minUnpacking Israeli HistoryTruth vs. Myth in Israeli History with Haviv Rettig Gur (Part 1)Unpacking Israeli History is coming to Chicago on June 8 for its first ever LIVE event! Buy your tickets nowDISCOUNT: Get 20% off your tickets using the discount code UIHCHI. NB: Click "Unlock" and enter the discount code before selecting your tickets.
Host Noam Weissman is joined by journalist and analyst Haviv Rettig Gur to unpack three of the most enduring and controversial myths surrounding Israeli history and identity. In the first installment of a two-part series, Haviv and Noam explore so-called myths including: There is no occupation in the West Bank, Yigal Amir ended...2025-05-2038 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 14: Should Israel give up on international law ? A conversation with a former IDF lawyerIf the requirements of international law mean that Israel is effectively prohibited from defeating its enemies or protecting its borders, should Israelis turn their backs on international law? Why do we need "law?" Isn't it enough to just do our best to be as moral as possible?After all, the institutions of international law seem so unfair to Israel. Just this past year, Israel was made to stand in judgment, accused of genocide, before a judicial panel whose president hails from an enemy country (Lebanon) and then left half-way through the proceedings to serve as the prime...2025-05-1848 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 13: John Spencer on war, morality, politics and the fight for the future.After a delay (Haviv got a bad flu), we're happy to share a great panel with Haviv and Prof. John Spencer that took place at the Woodbury Jewish Center in Woodbury, New York on May 7.Thank you to Rabbi Jason Fruithandler and Rob Dwek for hosting, and to the Malin family for sponsoring the speaker series this event was part of.Haviv and John talked about whether victory was in the cards against Hamas, what it would require, and whether Israeli society would persevere; about claims of starvation and genocide and the role of propaganda in conflict...2025-05-131h 19Ask Haviv AnythingEpisode 12: How Qatar gets a free pass for Islamist radicalism, a conversation with Dr. Jonathan SchanzerQatar has just 330,000 citizens but controls vast wealth due to its plentiful natural gas. It has used that wealth to support radical and violent terrorist groups and regimes throughout the Middle East and to wield enormous influence in the West, including among American politicians and universities.In today's episode, I asked Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and host of its Morning Brief podcast, if Qatar really is as bad as Israelis think, and if so, what should be done about it.We discuss Doha's ideological commitments and central role in building Hamas...2025-05-021h 02Ask Haviv AnythingEpisode 11: Iran is imploding - A conversation with Dr. Sharona Mazalian LeviAs the Trump administration tries to strike a deal curtailing Iran's nuclear program, I turned to Dr. Sharona Mazalian Levi, an Iran expert and proud Persian Jew, to try to take us past the headlines and political elites to the conditions and hopes of ordinary Iranians.Dr. Mazalian paints a dire picture. Desperate shortages of clean water, electricity and gas, a collapsed currency, a third of the population under the poverty line, an oppressive religious police, the highest rate of executions in the world, severe air pollution and environmental degradation -- and a regime...2025-04-2850 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 10: Thirty years of traumatic peacemaking - what do Israelis really think?Palestinian advocates like to quip that the current war "didn't begin on October 7." That's true, of course, though unhelpful. It didn't begin in any one specific place. There are no singular first causes in history. When we choose the beginning of the story, we choose its framing and meaning.For most Israeli Jews, the story of the current war might be said to have begun in the fall of 2000, in the great collapse of Oslo that still casts its long shadow on the Israeli political psyche.This is that story.Today’s episode is sponsored by Pennyweight Prizefighter, a sm...2025-04-221h 02Ask Haviv AnythingBonus episode: This Passover, we find our freedomPassover is upon us, the seder is Saturday night.Freedom, the Sages teach, is not an end, it is a path; no mere escape from Pharaoh's tyranny but a becoming, filled with substance and responsibility and devotion; no one-off achievement but a ceaseless struggle to secure and deepen who and what we are.This bonus episode offers a few short thoughts that I teach my children at our seder each year about the meaning of this holiday, and thus the meaning of our peoplehood and freedom.This episode is sponsored by the Sapir Journal, a wonderful quarterly journal devoted...2025-04-1116 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 9: Did Biden derail Saudi normalization? Breaking down the Abraham Accords with ex-NSC expert Shiri FeinThe Abraham Accords have the potential to transform the Middle East. The very fact that they survived the Gaza war proves their resilience. Indeed, trade between Israel and its Abraham Accords partners has risen dramatically and stayed high through the war.And now the “kit” of dozens of agreements drafted between Israel and the UAE, from the overarching peace agreement to treaties on cellphone network interoperability and double taxation, stands ready to be copied over to a Israeli-Saudi peace.But will the Saudi normalization go forward? What would it take? Does it depend on what happens in Gaza, and can...2025-04-1048 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 8: Prof. Alexander Yakobson on what it means to "decolonize Palestine"Is Zionism colonialism? Are Jews an authentic people, or merely a religion? What about Palestinians? What are Zionism’s moral costs, and what are those of opposing Zionism?I asked one of my teachers, Hebrew University historian Prof. Alexander Yakobson, some of the great questions now being advanced in Western academic and progressive discourses about Israel.Alex has that special fearlessness of an intellectual who takes the other side's position seriously. It makes his answers all the more valuable.This episode was sponsored by an...2025-04-0352 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 7 - Judicial Reform: Is tribalism eating Israeli democracy alive?What if everybody is right on judicial reform? Israel's highest court is immensely and unreasonably powerful. But if it is weakened, what other checks stand in the way of the tyranny of the majority, that great Achilles' heel of democracy since the dawn of Western civilization?This question is especially urgent for Israel, whose politics are more Middle Eastern than Western, more tribal than ideological.It's not unreasonable to weaken the court, but it would be disastrous to do so without broad trust and buy-in, and without addressing the...2025-03-2857 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 6: Why won't Israel fight for the Democrats? With Rep. Ritchie TorresAbandoning the Democrats is a losing strategy for Israel, says Rep. Ritchie Torres, perhaps the most outspoken supporter of Israel in the US House of Representatives. The fight over Israel inside American politics is a proxy for a much larger battle over the future of the Democratic Party and the character of America, he argues. Those who don't like Israel, he says, tend to take a dim view of the promise of America.And who is Clarence Jones, and why does Torres consider him "the greatest living American?"Thank...2025-03-2540 minAsk Haviv AnythingExtra Episode: Back to war in GazaWarfighting has resumed in Gaza. Israel's message is clear: Gaza's future depends on Hamas releasing hostages and surrendering its control of the territory.But there is a larger pivot underway, a regional strategic realignment. Hamas once hoped its attack on Israel would trigger a broader regional war. In a sense, it succeeded, relegating Gaza to a marginal arena in the larger strategic struggle. That alone, gives Israel a freer hand to resume war whenever it wants. Hamas is now truly strategically alone.Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman...2025-03-1925 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 5: When your family is taken hostageThis is a podcast about history, but also about this moment in history.Today's episode is a special one. Many of you asked about the hostages, about the activism of their families, about their shattering experiences on October 7 and how they have worked to piece their lives back together since.I can think of no better way to begin to answer these questions than by posing them to our good friend Shaked Haran.There's no one story of the hostage families. Their experiences vary...2025-03-131h 27
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Egypt's farcical plan for postwar GazaWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. At a Cairo summit of Arab leaders on Tuesday, a consensus of states adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave -- in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision. The over 100-page “Early Recovery, Reconstruction, Development of Gaza” plan envisions a Gaza Administration Committee, made up of independent technocrat...2025-03-0633 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 4 - Last Jew Standing: The story of Israeli JewsIsraeli Jews are the last surviving remnant of dozens of devastated Jewish communities across three continents. How did this history shape them? What do they understand about the world that few others see?Join Haviv Rettig Gur for a deep dive into the historical experience that shaped this largest community of Jews ever.Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnythingIf you...2025-03-0658 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 3: John Spencer on why Israel hasn't yet won the war in GazaIn our first interview episode, Haviv Rettig Gur sits down (virtually) with Prof. John Spencer of West Point, one of the foremost experts in urban warfare who has made a special study of Israeli warfighting tactics and strategy.Many subscribers to this podcast have asked us why Israel doesn’t seem to have won this war, why Hamas is still standing after 17 months of fighting and why Israel must still negotiate for its hostages.For answers we turned to Prof. Spencer. We learned about the IDF’s astonishing successes, such...2025-02-2654 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Why is Israel handing Gaza back to Hamas?Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Ahead of a fateful day for Israelis in which Hamas for the first time will release the bodies of hostages who died on October 7, 2023, or in captivity, including potentially the Bibas family, Rettig Gur discusses how the iconic little red-haired boys have entered all Israelis' heart to become everyone's children. We hear how the series of staged hostage-release ceremonies are a way for the...2025-02-1938 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Trump's Gaza plan is a warningWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. On February 4, 2025, US President Donald Trump made a bombshell proposal to resettle the population of Gaza. The announcement caught the world by surprise and over a week later, no one is entirely sure what Trump intends beyond restarting and resetting the discussion of Gaza after the war. We discuss Israeli comedian Reshef Levy's biting Hebrew-language assessment of politicians' responses and how they reflect the...2025-02-1329 min
רוח מערבית - The Western Spirit"Iran Has Been Humiliated and Exposed by Israel" | Haviv Rettig Gur on Why Israel Is Winning the War🎙️In this episode, we spoke with Haviv Rettig Gur, a veteran Israeli journalist and senior analyst at The Times of Israel. Since 2005, Haviv has covered Israeli politics, foreign policy, the education system, and the relationship with the Jewish diaspora, reporting from over 20 countries.Haviv explained why Iran must be defeated and how the U.S., under President Biden, has hindered Israel's ability to achieve this goal. We also explored where the war in Gaza is headed and Israel's potential next moves.Additionally, we discussed the relationship between moderate Arab nations and the Jewish state, and whether Israeli Jews and the J...2025-02-0857 minAsk Haviv AnythingEpisode 0: History That Matters"Ask Haviv Anything" is a podcast about history, a podcast you, dear listener, will help to shape and direct, focusing not just on what I want to talk about but on what you want to learn and discuss. Nothing is off limits. We're going to talk about big and painful things, and also beautiful and fascinating things, wars and identities and painful history. And also more light-hearted things. Humor matters, especially when facing tough subjects.Join me on this journey.Please join me on Patreon to support this project...2025-02-0528 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Death penalty for terrorists?Welcome to a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. This week, we answer a slew of listeners' responses to our conversation last week, "Excruciating dilemmas as murderers set to be released," about the painful issue of the release of Palestinian security prisoners as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal. We received dozens of emails from listeners who asked how an Israeli implementation of the death penalty for mass murderers...2025-01-3028 min
Fareed Zakaria GPSHaviv Rettig Gur and Mustafa Barghouti Discuss the Implications of the Gaza Ceasefire DealToday on the show, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire goes into effect. Fareed is joined by CNN reporters in the region. He also talks to The Times of Israel’s Haviv Rettig Gur as well as Mustafa Barghouti, president of the Palestinian National Initiative, to discuss the release of the first three Israeli hostages. They also speak with Fareed about the long-term implications of the deal, and what needs to be done to achieve a lasting peace. GUESTS: Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur), Mustafa Barghouti (@MustafaBarghou1) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...2025-01-1950 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Hamas's survival is Gaza's tragedyWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's senior analyst, Haviv Rettig Gur. When this podcast conversation was recorded, the deal between Israel and Hamas for a hostage release and temporary ceasefire in Gaza had not actually been signed and sealed. Despite jubilant announcements by mediators on Wednesday night, by Thursday morning, claims of last-minute demands from Hamas had prevented a formal announcement. Whether or not the deal will go through, Prime Minister...2025-01-1627 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Israel's wishlist for US president-elect TrumpWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's senior analyst, Haviv Rettig Gur. This week, a committee appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to examine defense spending and IDF military force design for the future announced that the election of Donald Trump as US president offers an unprecedented opportunity to remove the threat Israel faces from Iran.the Trump’s return to the White House, said the Nagel Committee on Monday, “creates, for the...2025-01-0941 min
Call Me Back - with Dan SenorREPLAY: Lessons learned from the hostage deal - with Haviv Rettig Gur 🔗Subscribe to watch video episodes of Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast🔗Visit our website to sign up for updates, access transcripts and more: https://arkmedia.org/🔗Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor🔗Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenorOn thousands of street corners in Israel today, there are banners that read: “bring the hostages back from the darkness.” It’s excruciating to think that this is the second Hanukkah since October 7th with hostages still in Gaza. For today’s episode, we...2024-12-2754 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Iran's solution for the Jewish state problemWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an Iranian career diplomat who participated in the previous round of nuclear talks, is currently Iran's Vice President for Strategic Affairs since August 2024. In that role, he wrote an op-ed in the bi-monthly Foreign Affairs journal. The century-old magazine focuses on international relations and policy and can serve as a platform to float ideas and hear reasoned responses.2024-12-0534 min
The Podcast BrowserTerrorism, Israel, and Dreams of Peace (with Haviv Rettig Gur) Podcast: EconTalk (LS 69 · TOP 0.05% what is this?)Episode: Terrorism, Israel, and Dreams of Peace (with Haviv Rettig Gur)Pub date: 2024-11-18Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationOver the last 30 years, the Israeli public has moved to the right on the question of how to deal with the Palestinians. Why did this happen? How has this changed Israeli politics and the strategy of the Palestinians? Listen, as journalist Haviv Rettig Gur explores the political and military history of the last three decades in Israel wit...2024-12-022h 05Call Me Back - with Dan SenorIs Israel Winning? - with Haviv Rettig GurHOUSEKEEPING NOTE: The Jewish Food Society is a nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and celebrate Jewish culinary heritage in order to deepen connections to Jewish life. As part of their annual fundraising drive, the Jewish Food Society is holding an auction to support their work. To place a bid on any of the items up for auction (including a lunch with Dan Senor), visit: https://givebutter.com/c/JFSFallAuction/auction To learn more about the work of the Jewish Food Society, visit: https://www.jewishfoodsociety.org TODA...2024-12-0247 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: What's left of the left?Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Inspired by an op-ed by David Brooks in the New York Times called “Why We Got It So Wrong,” the pair discuss how a similar misconception of the political landscape may afflict Israel's center-left as it did the Democratic party. Rettig Gur discusses a newer face on the political landscape -- October 7-hero and Democrats head Yair Golan -- and talks about how his rise is i...2024-11-2143 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Rising resentment as Haredi men refuse to draftWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. At the start of the war in retaliation for Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israel Defense Forces reported that more than 100 percent of reservists called up for duty had shown up — nearly 300,000 reservists in total, marking the largest-ever call-up of reservists in Israel’s history. This week, we learned that there has been a significant decline in the rate of reserve sold...2024-11-1434 minCall Me Back - with Dan SenorThe Future of Gaza - with Haviv Rettig GurIn recent weeks, with the IDF focusing most of its attention on the Northern front, the media has been paying less attention to what’s actually happening in Gaza. What would constitute the Gaza War being over? Is there any progress on a Day After Plan for Gaza? What is the status of hostage negotiations and other efforts to free the hostages? What would the future (medium-term/long-term) Israeli presence in Gaza look like? To help us connect these dots, Haviv Rettig Gur returns to the podcast. Haviv Rettig Gur is the p...2024-11-1444 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: US elections through an Israeli prismWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. The United States is electing its next president on November 5 and according to a poll published this week, Israelis massively favor Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris. So ahead of next week's results, we take a closer look at exactly how Israelis are polling, which candidate they favor -- and some reasons why. We also learn how the current polling matches previous surveys of...2024-10-3135 minCall Me Back - with Dan SenorEMERGENCY EPISODE: SINWAR DEAD — with Nadav Eyal & Haviv Rettig GurYahya Sinwar is dead. To help us better understand what happened in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the reaction in Israeli society, and what is likely to happen next in Gaza and in Israel, Nadav Eyal and Haviv Rettig Gur join us for an emergency episode of the podcast. NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news. Haviv is the senior political analyst at The...2024-10-1734 min
18Forty PodcastHaviv Rettig Gur: 'Hamas Is Upset That the Death Toll in Gaza Isn’t Higher' (18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers)We're taking a week off from our main podcast, but we want to share with you an episode of our new podcast, 18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers, recorded on Sept. 9. Subscribe to on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to catch the latest episode every Monday. Until Hamas is gone, Haviv Rettig Gur says, Gaza will be unable to recover after the war.The Times of Israel journalist and political analyst has emerged as a leading voice for the Israeli public and the Jewish world for deeper understandings of the war's developments. Haviv has covered Israeli politi...2024-10-151h 21
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: The regional war has already begunWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Last week, three women were arrested after distributing flyers with six hostages' faces in MK Yuli Edelstein’s synagogue in Herzliya, including a picture of him as a Prisoner of Zion alongside and the famous "Let My People Go" slogan used to support the refuseniks in the Soviet Union before being allowed to emigrate to Israel in 1987. After a week of backlash to their arrests and his ap...2024-09-1931 min
18 Questions, 40 Israeli ThinkersHaviv Rettig Gur: 'Hamas is upset that the death toll in Gaza isn't higher'Until Hamas is gone, Haviv Rettig Gur says, Gaza will be unable to recover after the war.The Times of Israel journalist and political analyst has emerged as a leading voice for the Israeli public and the Jewish world for deeper understandings of the war's developments. Haviv has covered Israeli politics — domestic and foreign — for nearly two decades and speaks internationally about Zionism, the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, and Israel's future.Haviv was previously the director of communications for the Jewish Agency for Israel, and currently teaches history and politics at Israeli premilitary academies.Now, he jo...2024-09-161h 21
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Israel's Sophie's Choice on hostagesWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. This week, Israel was shattered by the news that six hostages, all previously thought alive, were discovered dead in a Gaza tunnel. The six hostages whose bodies were recovered over the weekend — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi — were killed just days before troops found them, according to autopsies and the IDF. They were all buried this week and hundred...2024-09-0534 minCall Me Back - with Dan SenorThe execution of six hostages - with Haviv Rettig Gur & Wendy Singer*** Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/39yxftr6 ***
Over the past 24 hours we learned the devastating news about Hamas’s slaughtering of 6 hostages. The families of two of these hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Carmel Gat had been guests on this podcast over the past few months.
The news of these executions followed news in Israel last Thursday of a heated debate within the security cabinet over a clause that the prime minister had introduced – to be voted on – into the negotiations over any final deal. Some critics are arguing that the introduction of that clause was part of a pattern that doo...2024-09-021h 04
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: How to relax in your bomb shelterWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Israel awaits an expected retaliatory attack from Iran and Hezbollah for the assassinations of Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran and Hezbollah chief of staff Fuad Shukr in Beirut. We don’t know what’s going to happen: The potential strike could be tonight, could be tomorrow -- or could be never. During this period of uncertainty, we discuss with good...2024-08-0819 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: At the Olympics, Israel is a 'pariah state.' Who cares?Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan, speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Israel’s national anthem, "Hativkah," was loudly jeered before its soccer team kicked off play at the Paris Olympics against Mali on Wednesday night. To the relief of all, the game passed without major security incidents as the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Since the 1972 Munich Games, Team Israel has been closely protected by the Israeli Security Agency. However, as rhetoric an...2024-07-2534 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: The rebellion from within LikudWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, The Times of Israel deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Ultra-Orthodox men of military age have been able to avoid being conscripted to the IDF for decades by enrolling in yeshivas for Torah study and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption. This week, a historic High Court ruling — which found that there is no legal basis for excluding Haredi men...2024-06-2730 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: The weakness of international lawWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. On Tuesday, the United Nations published an annual report on children in armed conflict, which for the first time added the Israeli military, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to its list of worst offenders. The decision to add the IDF to what has become known as “the list of shame” was due to what the report said was its killing and maiming of children and...2024-06-1335 min
What the Hell Is Going OnWTH is Going On With the Hostage Rescue and Political Turmoil in Israel? Haviv Rettig Gur ExplainsThis past weekend, Israeli special forces rescued four hostages Hamas kidnapped on October 7 and held in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp. Israelis were ecstatic about the news. Meanwhile, Israel’s usual detractors in the West accused Israel of war crimes for harming “civilians” during the operation, apparently forgetting that Hamas chose to embed hostages within Gaza’s civilian population. What does the hostage rescue mean for the prospects of saving the remaining 120 hostages? Will turmoil and resignations at the senior levels of Israel’s national security government derail efforts to destroy Hamas? What does the future hold for this war amid gro...2024-06-131h 04
Who The Folk?! PodcastHaviv Rettig GurWe have a special edition of this week’s show: This week I talk to Haviv Rettig-Gur, who will be the featured speaker at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas annual event on June 2.Haviv Rettig Gur is a veteran Israeli journalist who serves as senior analyst for The Times of Israel and is also a frequent guest on the Call Me Back and The Times of Israel podcasts. He has covered Israel’s politics and foreign policy since 2005, reported from over 20 countries, served as director of communications for the Jewish Agency for Israel, Isra...2024-05-2647 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Reasons for optimism in Israel’s 77th yearWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. The Cambridge Dictionary defines "optimism" as "the quality of being full of hope and emphasizing the good parts of a situation, or a belief that something good will happen." Looking at war-torn Israel today, it is a quality that appears to be in short supply. But in this week's What Matters Now, The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur points out that while things look bleak now, there...2024-05-1637 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: What is antisemitism, really?Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. Last week, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene -- a Georgia Republican who has been criticized in the past for her dalliances with antisemitic tropes and influencers -- explained her vote against a bill defining antisemitism by saying that the bill rejects the “gospel” that “the Jews” handed Jesus over to his crucifiers. When the Georgia Republican stated these "facts," she echoed thousands of years of blood libel used to excuse the antisemi...2024-05-0932 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Is it wise for US to blacklist IDF unit?Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. This week, we speak with The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur about the controversial Netzah Yehudah battalion that is on the docket for blacklisting by the United States under the 1997 Leahy Law. In August 2022, Israeli troops from the religious Netzah Yehuda battalion were filmed beating two Palestinian detainees in the West Bank in a video posted to the TikTok video-sharing site. Three soldiers were seen repeatedly kicking...2024-04-2538 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Is Netanyahu an obstacle to victory?Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration of one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. In his US Senate floor speech last week, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer called for new Israeli elections as the war winds down and branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as one of four obstacles to peace along with Hamas, the Israeli far-right and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Throughout the past week, Times of Israel podcast listeners have shared their views on Schumer's speech -- and offered overwhelming support for the most senior el...2024-03-2131 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Campus antisemitism makes new ZionistsWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur recently gave a series of lectures at North American college campuses. At some, including Harvard, his lecture was met with a performative walk-out from a contingent of pro-Palestinian protesters. Since Hamas's October 7 murderous onslaught, accounts of campus antisemitism have filled the pages of newspapers, from The Times of Israel and to mainstream international media. On this week's What Matters Now, Rettig Gur and host Amanda Borschel-Dan lo...2024-03-0735 min
Israel: State of a Nation with Eylon LevyColonizers? Communists? Czarists? | Haviv Rettig Gur on What Arabs Got Wrong About Jewish RefugeesSend us a textJournalist, political correspondent and academic Haviv Rettig Gur sits down with Eylon Levy for a deep dive into the conflict’s clashing narratives. Together, they decode both the Israeli and Palestinian versions of the creation of the state of Israel, how the Arabs saw the Jews, how the Jews saw themselves, and the problem of historical revisionism. Mostly, Haviv and Eylon try to answer the key question: what do we wish the Palestinians understood about us?Join our mailing list at www.stateofanationpodcast.comFIND US ON X...2024-02-2946 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Haredim have to defend Israel, tooWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. This year, in what is reportedly a record-high number, some 66,000 young men from the ultra-Orthodox community received a deferral from military service. Of those tens of thousands of military-age men, following Hamas's murderous October 7 onslaught on Israel and the war it launched, 540 men voluntarily signed up for military service. On Monday, the High Court of Justice determined that the state has until March 24 to explain why its June 2023 resolution -- which instructed the IDF no...2024-02-2932 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: UNRWA's problem isn't the terrorists in its ranksWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. The Israel Defense Forces revealed this week that beneath the Gaza Strip headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the controversial aid organization known commonly as UNRWA, the Hamas terror group hid one of its most significant assets, a subterranean data center. As witnessed by ToI military reporter Emanuel Fabian, cables were discovered running from a UNRWA server room to the Hamas data center underground....2024-02-1531 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Clashing visions of victoryWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he told visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is “within touching distance of absolute victory,” and that Hamas’s defeat will be the “victory of the entire free world.” In a rebuttal to the prime minister, five women released from captivity in Gaza during a weeklong truce in late November stated that "absolute victory" for Israel would only come with the release of the remainin...2024-02-0835 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: What Israelis think about the suffering in GazaWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, over 24,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas in retaliation to the bloody invasion by 3,000 terrorists from Gaza who massacred 1,200 -- mostly civilians -- and took over 240 hostages to Gaza. And while it is clear that Hamas began the war, it's also clear that Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are being used as human shields to tactically and cynically generate public outcry aga...2024-01-1841 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: How the court just redefined its own powersWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. This week the Supreme Court delivered a long-awaited decision on whether or not it would repeal the one piece of judicial overhaul legislation passed by the so-called pure right coalition under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Held on September 12, the hearing in front of a full bench of all 15 Supreme Court justices made for a day-long media event. Citizens across the country became armchair legal experts and held watch parties. Since the Hamas in...2024-01-0436 min
What Matters NowWhat Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Wartime polls & unexpected conclusionsWelcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. The past several weeks have seen the publication of a slew of high-profile opinion surveys on the war with Hamas. They include deep looks into the psyche of the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and a probe into how Israeli Jews and Arabs differ in perspectives. Out of the United States, there are a few surveys that take the temperature of the American electorate during the war with Hamas. Among th...2023-12-2148 min
State of Tel Aviv, Israel PodcastE45. How the Hostage Trauma Has Stoked Israeli Fortitude: In Conversation with Haviv Rettig GurSpeaking with journalist and political analyst Haviv Rettig Gur is always a journey. He begins by sharing his family's personal experience with supporting a family in which many members were taken hostage. Some have been released. Some remain. Some were murdered on Oct. 7. Haviv explains the impossible, how this trauma is at once uplifting and devastating. Nothing in life is familiar. But Rettig Gur is a pragmatic optimist. He lauds the way in which the IDF has earned back so much trust from the Israeli population, in spite of its appalling dereliction of duty on October 7. He sees an u...2023-12-0134 minCall Me Back - with Dan SenorFlipping the Script -- with Haviv Rettig GurHaviv Rettig Gur returns for our weekly conversation from Jerusalem to provide real-time reporting and analysis on the war, and invaluable historical context. Today, we talk to Haviv about the hostage crisis in the context of Israel's war fighting. And we also discuss Haviv's contrarian view of how Israel is reacting to the growing international pressure it is encountering – what it means for Israel and what it means for Jews around the world.
Finally, last week we released our new book: "The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World", which you can order no...2023-11-1351 minCall Me Back - with Dan SenorA post-October 7th security doctrine for Israel - with Haviv Rettig GurHaviv Rettig Gur returns for our weekly conversation from Israel to provide real-time reporting and analysis on the war, and invaluable historical context. We wanted to check in with Haviv, who is the political analyst at The Times of Israel, where was also a long time reporter. He’s also working on a book. Haviv was also a combat medic in the IDF where he served in the reserves.
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/call-me-back-with-dan-senor/id1539292794?i=10006322643312023-10-3048 minCall Me Back - with Dan SenorThe Fog of Waiting - with Haviv Rettig GurHaviv Rettig Gur returns for our weekly conversation from Israel to provide real-time reporting and analysis on the war, and invaluable historical context.
We wanted to check in with Haviv on increasing questions we are hearing from within Israel and the U.S. about -- as it relates to the call-up of reserves and the deployment along Israel's southern border - why 'hurry up and wait'?
In this conversation we explore the 'known knowns' of equities that Israeli decision-makers must be balancing. Haviv, who is the political analyst at The Times of Israel. He was a long time reporter for...2023-10-2356 minCall Me Back - with Dan SenorPublic sentiment on the eve of invasion - with Haviv Rettig GurHaviv Rettig Gur returns to our podcast to provide real-time reporting and analysis on the war, and invaluable historical context. He will be a weekly guest on our podcast through the duration of the war. Today he is focused on Israeli public sentiment as the country mobilizes, and also looks at how the October 7 is perhaps changing perceptions in and of the Israeli Arab community.
Haviv is the political analyst at The Times of Israel. He was a long time reporter for the Times of Israel. He’s also working on a book. Haviv was also a combat medic in th...2023-10-1751 min
The Jack Carr ChannelHaviv Rettig Gur: Israel at WarToday’s guest for this special episode of Danger Close is journalist Haviv Rettig Gur.
Haviv is a senior political analyst for The Times of Israel.
Haviv served as a combat medic in the Israel Defense Forces, was the Director of Communications for the Jewish Agency for Israel, and was a correspondent for The Jerusalem Post.
You can follow him on X @havivrettiggur
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Navy Federal Credit Union: Today’s episode is presented by Navy Federal Credit Union. Learn more about them at htt...2023-10-131h 37Call Me Back - with Dan SenorISRAEL AT WAR: The Hostage Dilemma - with Haviv Rettig GurHaviv Rettig Gur returns to our podcast to provide real-time reporting and analysis on the war, and invaluable historical context. His insights on how Israel might prosecute this war -- and the possible end of Israel's security paradigm with Gaza and its approach to Israeli hostages -- are especially important.
Haviv is the political analyst at The Times of Israel. He was a long time reporter for the Times of Israel. He’s also working on a book. Haviv was also a combat medic in the IDF where he served in the reserves.
We discuss his most recent piece from th...2023-10-081h 03
Paralyzed NationThreshold chokehold: Haviv Rettig Gur on why elections are now won by the fringeWelcome to the third episode of Paralyzed Nation, a podcast drilling down into the hard questions facing Israeli voters ahead of the looming November 1 elections. In our limited series podcast, Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with Times of Israel political analysts and learns about the forces that have brought us to this political deadlock. In this third episode of Paralyzed Nation, senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur explains how the Israeli electoral threshold has a stranglehold on coalition building. He dives into the history of the incrementally rising percentage -- from 1% to today's 3.25% -- and the...2022-10-1946 min
Paralyzed NationTribal politics: Haviv Rettig Gur on Israel's 'simple' electoral systemWelcome to the second episode of Paralyzed Nation, a podcast drilling down into the hard questions facing Israeli voters ahead of the looming November 1 elections. In our limited series podcast, Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with Times of Israel political analysts and learns about the forces that have brought us to this political deadlock. In this second episode of Paralyzed Nation, senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur explains how the Israeli electoral system encourages tribal politics, but not all segments of society can enter the arena on an equal footing. He delves into the up- and...2022-10-1228 min
The Israel ConversationHaviv Rettig Gur on AntisemitismIn this extra long episode, listener favorite Haviv Rettig Gur joins Mike and new co-host Liel Zahavi-Asa to discuss his recent article about antisemitism. Why do Israelis struggle to understand antisemitism? What role does antisemitism play in Israeli politics? What did Zionists get right or wrong about antisemitism? Is optimism unrealistic? For this and so much more, join us!
Haviv's article
Makom Israel Teachers Lounge is a weekly podcast produced by Matt Lipman, and hosted by Michael Unterberg.
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Please rate and review us on Apple and recommend us to f...2021-07-301h 17The Israel ConversationIsrael's Tribal Democracy - Haviv Rettig GurIt's an extra long episode. We invited friend of the podcast Haviv Rettig Gur to explain Israeli elections to a group of Rimon students. (see links below about the Rimon Movement. As usual, Haviv wove data and anecdotes into an explanatory narrative that made so much sense out of Israel's unique system of government. We just had to share it! The first hour is Haviv explaining his thesis, in his usual engaging manner, followed by Q&A with students. You can listen to all or part of it, but we think the whole episode is rewarding from start to...2021-03-211h 41The Israel ConversationHaviv Rettig Gur on the UAE/Bahrain DealSure it's great news. But why are the U.A.E. and Bahrain normalising relations with Israel now? What message are they sending to Israel when the mention the Palestinians? How does all of this play out in the culture and politics of the region? How will the imminent U.S. elections affect the Middle East? The always insightful Haviv Rettig Gur explains his perspective to Alan and Mike. Join us!
Haviv at Times of Israel
Haviv at Mosaic
Makom Israel Teachers Lounge is a weekly podcast produced by Matt Lipman, and...2020-09-1643 minThe Israel ConversationHaviv Rettig Gur on AnnexationJuly 1st has arrived, and Israel's annexation plan remains as opaque as ever. Has entering July changed the story? What is the argument for and against annexation at this time? How do Israeli security analysts understand the region? Two educators, (Alan & Mike) invited a journalist (friend of the podcast Haviv Rettig Gur) to explain where we are, why we're here, and where we might be going. Join us!
Note: the opinions expressed in this episode do not represent Makom or the Jewish Agency.
Haviv Retting Gur at the Times of Israel
Makom Israel...2020-07-0233 minThe Israel ConversationHaviv Rettig Gur on The Elections...Knesset elections are this coming Tuesday! Alan and Mike gained wisdom and insight from Haviv Rettig Gur, Senior Political Analyst at Times of Israel. After explaining what that job is, and why he does it, we challenged him to make sense out of the pre-election chaos. Why has politics become all about shenanigans, instead of policy discussions? How is that shaping our culture? What are the parties really arguing about? What are they agreeing on? How will the next coalition process work, and what happens if they fail? Will we really annex the Jordan valley? Most importantly, should we b...2019-09-1200 min