Haaretz Podcast

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Rahm Emanuel: 'We're at a tipping point, there is no reset button' for Israel-U.S. relations Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of the Haaretz podcast, Rahm Emanuel – former White House chief-of-staff, veteran Democratic party insider, and potential presidential hopeful – speaks with guest host Joshua Leifer about the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship, the potential consequences of the upcoming elections in Israel, and the politics of Jewish identity in the current moment.

In July, Emanuel delivered a speech at Tel Aviv University in which he strongly criticized Israel's government, called for sanctions against violent settlers and companies building settlements, and proposed ending U.S. military assistance to Israel, all as part of a larger vision encompassing Israel's regional normalization and the creation of a Palestinian state.

On the podcast this week, he elaborated on the rationale behind the speech and what he calls the 23-three-state solution, based on the 2002 Saudi Peace Initiative. "I think lining up the Arabs' desire for stability with Israel's desire for security, with the Palestinians' desire for sovereignty – you can actually make the politics and policy work together," he said.

But to get there, he stressed, will require a change in Israeli leadership. Netanyahu, Emanuel added, "undermined any ability to have a partner in the purpose of building up Hamas."

Still, in the wake of the wars in Gaza and Iran, Emanuel stressed, the U.S.–Israel relationship "is not going to be the same relationship it was in the past, it can't be."

"We are at a tipping point," he said. "There is no reset button here."

Rahm Emanuel Wants to Save Israel. But Are Israelis Listening?

This Month, Israelis Will Vote on Palestine. There's Only One Choice on the Ballot

The Week the Democrats Defined the Israel-Palestine Debate for 2028

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Can a Trump endorsement and a racist smear campaign decide Israel's election? Oct 19, 2026

Show notes

U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, in a move that was both unprecedented and unexpected at this point in the campaign.

With only a week left before the Israeli election, Haaretz English editor Yishai Halper said on the Haaretz Podcast that he doesn’t believe Trump's "October surprise" is enough for people on the right or the left "to make a significant change in their vote.”

"It is almost taken for granted that Trump is behind Netanyahu, and he may even amp up his endorsements in the coming days," he said, "It's an October surprise in the sense that he finally did this. The impact, I think, will be anything but a surprise.”

Also on the podcast, Haaretz correspondents Judy Maltz and Nagham Zbeedat assess the state of the race, polling and the mood of the Israeli voting public.

Zbeedat, who covers Palestinian affairs, said that the Arab majority parties are seeing the effect of many Arab citizens who previously boycotted national elections, or stayed home out of indifference or hopelessness, who are voting this year. This is mainly "because of the gun violence in the Arab community, and also because of the recent attempts to disqualify Arab parties.”

Maltz, who recently visited Gadi Eisenkot's hometown of Eilat, discussed the racist attacks on him from Netanyahu supporters. She also described the jittery mood among anti-Netanyahu voters across the country, as Election Day approaches. “People are not sleeping at night. People are talking about, ‘What are we going to do if Netanyahu pulls it off again? Where are we going to go? Can we stay here?’ It is that bad.”

Pro-Netanyahu Pundit Calls Eisenkot 'Moroccan Monkey' Controlled by Ashkenazi Elite

In Eilat, Gadi Eisenkot Has the Hometown Advantage. Is It Enough to Shake Netanyahu?

Explained: How Can Israelis Still Vote for Netanyahu?

Abu Shehadeh's Withdrawal Leaves Palestinians With a Political Dilemma

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'Israel should stay out of Trump’s oil war. Netanyahu is doing the opposite' Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

The Iran war, like so many that came before it, centers on energy’s crucial role in geopolitics, according to Hebrew University historian Dr. Guy Laron, though international leaders often downplay or ignore it.

“Time and again, leaders speak in the language of values, security, justice, freedom, while chasing oil behind the scenes,” Laron said, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast in a discussion of the increasingly complicated geopolitics of the ongoing regional conflict in the wake of February’s U.S.-Israel attack on Iran and its effect on energy markets.

Historically, he added, even wars that don’t begin with energy at the center of the conflict often evolve into ‘oil wars’ once countries fighting for domination and influence are impacted by the necessity of access to tremendous levels of fuel to power both land and naval military forces.

Speaking on the podcast, Laron, the author of the new book "Oil Wars: The Struggle for Control that has Shaped the Modern World," (Yale University Press) noted how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used “energy calculus” to sell President Donald Trump on the attack and discussed the missteps that have left the White House mired in the region after Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz - something that the U.S. president “was told that this is exactly what would happen, and he still took the risk,” Laron said.

“Trump was dumb enough to think that what he did in Venezuela - in America’s backyard - he can do in the Middle East in the same way.”

As the Election Clock Ticks Down, Netanyahu Is Running Out of Wars to Win

Will Trump Defend Saudi Arabia From Houthi Attacks – and How Far Will He Go?

Trump's Iran War: Without Strategy, There Is No Path to Victory

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'The most AI'd campaign the world has ever seen': The Israeli far right has a Palestinian emigration fantasy Oct 12, 2026

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Leaders of far-right parties running in the Israeli elections are openly campaigning on platforms that advocate expelling Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.

On the Haaretz Podcast, senior analyst Esther Solomon and correspondent Linda Dayan discussed the platforms of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ex-general Ofer Winter, both of whom are wooing voters by attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government from the right.

Ben-Gvir in particular is proudly “promoting a platform for ‘voluntarily‘ expelling Palestinians from every single part from Gaza and the West Bank,” Solomon said.

Winter included his longtime support for “voluntary emigration” from Gaza in the platform of his new Amcha Israel party, in an effort Solomon described as being designed to appeal to far-right voters dissatisfied with Netanyahu, but “who are a little bit disgusted by some of the crude ways that Ben-Gvir operates. They like their candidates to look a bit nicer.”

Dayan, who recently attended a Winter campaign event aimed at English-speaking voters, said that Winter’s party’s positions articulated by the candidates on his list and their supporters are “a profoundly bizarre rejection of reality.”

Together with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Solomon and Dayan assessed the state of the race, which is increasingly shaping up into a likely deadlock, with neither the pro-Netanyahu nor the (Jewish, Zionist) anti-Netanyahu bloc coming close to achieving a 61-seat majority, according to the polls.

Countdown to Election Day: A Road Trip Through a Country Deciding Its Future

America's Right Is Tired of Israel and Jews. NatCon Jerusalem Confirms It

This Leader of a Small, Far-Right Party Wants Netanyahu Fans to Take a Chance on Him

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'The worst gamble in Israeli military history': Amos Harel on the failures of October 7 Oct 07, 2026

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The decision by Israel’s top generals and intelligence chiefs not to put the IDF on high alert in the hours before October 7 was “the worst gamble in Israeli military history,” according to senior defense analyst Amos Harel, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast on the third anniversary of the attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

“They terribly, tragically underestimated both Hamas’ capabilities and its actual intentions that night,” Harel said.

Harel is the author of “6:29: Anatomy of a Failure,” the first and most complete account of the chain of mistakes by the country’s top military and political echelons leading up to the devastating events of that day.

On the podcast, Harel recounts the military and political mistakes that were made, pinning them on “arrogance” and a “condescending” misreading of Hamas’ capabilities and determination – and how their failures have shaken Israeli citizen’s belief that they are “in safe hands.”

“We have the best air force in the region, one of the best in the world. We have the technology. We have the operational understanding, and so on, and yet we were taken by complete surprise,” he noted.

Harel also discusses the legacy of October 7, including how it is shaping Israel’s upcoming election, and the narrative crafted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has allowed him to maintain political viability as he runs a campaign that exploits fears of a repeat of the disaster, all while blocking the formation of an October 7 commission of inquiry or any other comprehensive investigation, and fanning the flames of conspiracy theories.

Netanyahu, he said, is “fighting for his life by any means necessary. Everything is worth it in order to maintain power and stay out of jail.”

October 7: How Hamas Attacked Israel, Minute by Minute

Protests Across Israel Mark Third Anniversary of October 7

Israel's October 7 Leaders Mourned the Dead – and Celebrated Their Own Survival

Op-ed | My Mother Was a Peace Activist Killed on October 7. Don't Use Her Name to Justify Mass Killing

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How the Flydubai midair attack gave Netanyahu an election boost Oct 05, 2026

Show notes

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handling of the crisis after the Flydubai attack demonstrated his “facility at dominating the news cycle and setting the agenda of the debate” in the crucial weeks ahead of the October 27 Israeli election, said Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.

Netanyahu skillfully and quickly took the spotlight, basking in the reflected glory of the heroic pilot and passengers who saved the plane, while evading responsibility for the security failures as he did post-October 7. By doing so, he put his election rivals in a lose-lose position, Leifer noted.

If his rivals for power publicly acknowledged that “we're living in a dangerous neighborhood and we have to step things up, then you know they end up backing him,” Leifer said. “But if the opposition comes out and starts blaming Netanyahu” for the oversights and negligence that led to the near-disaster, “they come out looking like they’re spoiling the party and they’re not loyal.”

Leifer’s fellow Election Podcast panelist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin agreed and said given the situation, it is “smarter” for the opposition to “sit back and let the facts come out” in the media rather than go on the offensive.

On the podcast, Leifer and Scheindlin joined host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss flydubai, along with the impact of the commemoration of three years since October 7 on the campaign, dueling interpretations of the current polls, and the Netanyahu opposition’s “horrifically mismanaged” campaign.

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Why Netanyahu's rivals have a unity problem – and a big Arab party problem Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

The most recent attempt at a show of unity by the Jewish Zionist parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was only partially successful.

With the election less than a month away, their leaders may have agreed not to campaign against each other and save their fire for Netanyahu – but they failed to explicitly commit to backing whichever party leader garners the most votes to head the bloc, said Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.

"For most of the people who support the parties in the opposition bloc, it was a big disappointment that they couldn't say what seems so obvious to most people," Maltz said of the meeting between the four major parties opposed to Netanyahu.

"There was a lot of hope that they would emerge ... and say, 'We have a leader. It will be Eisenkot against Netanyahu,' but they could not reach an agreement on that."

Maltz was joined on the podcast by fellow Haaretz journalist Linda Dayan and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the fallout of the Central Elections Committee's decision to disqualify Arab parties along with individual members of the party, and the controversial decision by left-wing Democrats leader Yair Golan to support barring Balad party head Sami Abu Shehadah, who made comments following October 7 that were interpreted as supporting the Hamas attack.

"What he wrote is disgusting," Dayan said. "The question is whether it's actually illegal, and there are a lot of figures saying that it isn't," and noted that such votes to disqualify candidates is an "Israeli election tradition."

Maltz, who has been traveling across the country over the past months, reporting on the mood of Israeli voters, spoke on the podcast about her visit to Kibbutz Be'eri, where 132 people were massacred and 35 taken hostage on October 7, to find out how that trauma has affected their politics.

"Overall, most of them have moved to the right. But they will not vote for any parties in the current coalition, because much as they hate Hamas, they hate the current Israeli government even more, and blame them for October 7."

Banned Arab Party Leader to Challenge Knesset Disqualification in Court Despite Internal Opposition

Israel's AG Urges Court to Disqualify Arab Party Leader Over Post-Oct. 7 Remarks

Eisenkot Says No Arab Party Meets Demands to Join Government Led by Him

'Not Once Did You Use the Word Peace': In English, Yair Golan Strikes a Centrist Tone

Did Kibbutz Be'eri Lose Faith in the Left?

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Yuval Abraham on 'NAZA' storm, 'unhinged' Netanyahu and why he wants to come back home after all Sep 26, 2026

Show notes

On the eve of the New York premiere of their film, "NAZA," co-directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor sat with Haaretz U.S. senior writer Etan Nechin to talk about the journalistic investigations behind the film, the unprecedented criticism of them in Israel – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat to strip them of their citizenship – and why it’s important to them to come back home and engage with Israelis.

In this episode of the Haaretz podcast, you can listen to Abraham discuss what he thought of Netanyahu likening the documentary to “dozens of missiles” being fired at Israel; the Trump administration's material support of the Gaza war and U.S. debate about arms sales to Israel; the film’s title and thematic association with Nazi Germany; why so many specific details were taken out of the film; and his plan to return to Israel and continue his work.

“I don't want to be an exile,” he said, declaring that “there are no grounds” to revoke his or Szor’s citizenship.

“We're journalists. We're filmmakers. … The storm will pass, and we will come back and move on to the next thing.”

The full interview with Abraham and Szor will be available on haaretz.com on Sunday.

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Ed Sheeran and Macklemore-gate: What happened and what does it mean? Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

After rapper Macklemore cried "Free Palestine!" as he took the stage as the opening act for music superstar Ed Sheeran, opened a Pandora's box of controversy over free speech and the place of politics at a music concert "that is not dying down any time soon," said Philissa Cramer on the Haaretz Podcast.

Cramer, recently appointed senior Jewish Life correspondent for Haaretz, recounted on the podcast how, when Gillette Stadium and New England Patriots billionaire owner Robert Kraft refused to have Macklemore at his venue later in the Sheeran tour, and the rapper was removed as an opening act for Sheeran, the incident "turned from a story about was Macklemore doing something that his audience found objectionable - to a story about cancel culture."

In addition to telling the story of the war of words and promises of donations, Cramer discussed with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer whether the episode carried lessons for the embattled organized U.S. Jewish community as the list of prominent celebrities speaking out publicly Palestinian rights continues to grow.

Ed Sheeran Apologizes for Macklemore Controversy, Says Gaza Devastation Is 'Unjustifiable'

Robert Kraft vs. Macklemore Reveals New Reality in 'Free Palestine' Debate

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'Under siege by settlers:' A Palestinian American on his month trapped in his West Bank home Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

The violence of extremist settlers on the West Bank as they systematically terrorize, attack and even displace Palestinian communities is a “perversion of Judaism” and a desecration of God’s name,” said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast in the week between the Jewish New Year and its Day of Atonement.

Joining Weiman-Kelman on the podcast is Loui Ridi, a Palestinian American who flew from Ohio back to his home in the West Bank village of Qusra, after settlers laid siege to his neighborhood and the IDF declared a closed military zone. Ridi has been unable to leave his house for a month due to the order, and says the closure has been selectively enforced against Palestinians, while the army refuses to remove the settlers.

Ridi is flying the American flag on his house, he said, “as a message to the U.S. government, to the U.S. officials, that I need protection and I need help.”

Weiman-Kelman, a former president of Rabbis for Human Rights and retired spiritual leader of Kol HaNeshama, a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem, reflected on the situation in the West Bank and the overall state of the country following Rosh Hashanah and ahead of Yom Kippur – a day on which, he said, “I want to atone for still feeling the effects of October 7, for the nationalist part of me overcoming the universal vision that is also part of me.”

Israel today is not only threatened by external enemies, but “threatened from within by the moral center of this country beginning to shatter and disintegrate before our eyes,” he said.

“We live in a country where people feel encouraged and empowered to express their darkest sides through acts of physical violence,” he said, including repeated vandalism to the Reform synagogue in Jerusalem he founded in 1985.

Palestinian-American Returns to West Bank Home Besieged by Israeli Settlers

B'Tselem Says Israel Is Implementing a 'Project of Elimination' Against Palestinians in the West Bank

IDF Dismisses Commander Over Praying With Settlers at West Bank Outpost

American Rabbis Confront a Fraught Question This High Holy Day Season: How to Talk About Israel

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