The Promised Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The "Banned on the Run" Edition Mar 14, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor Miriam Herschlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra segment?

Banned on the Run

Should parties that spew rage and hate be banned from running in democratic elections? Here in Israel, the question ain't academic.

The Feiglin Effect

The hottest thing in these elections is a radically libertarian, pro-weed-legalization, separation of Church and State party that also wants to annex the occupied territories tomorrow. WTF?

Feel the Burn

Midburn is Israel's Burning Man, and its growing by leaps and bounds. Why is it so popular?

Ilhan Who?

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment Allison's picque that no one in Israel seems to care one way or another about Ilhan Omar and the soul of America's Democratic Party. But should the question of whether or not a newly elected congresswoman's criticism of Israel are tinged with anti-Semitism matter in the cafes of Tel Aviv?

Music

Yuval Dayan, who won our hearts on the first season of the Voice, and whom we've loved ever since:

Mi Ani Mulam
Derekh ha-Eynayim Shelkha, Yoav
Mitarahat ba-Olam
Ha-Sof ha-Tov ha-Zeh

The "Things Change (or They Don't)" Edition Mar 07, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

The Bombshell was a Dud

A week after the Attorney General announced he'd be indicted for bribery and breach of trust, PM Netanyahu is more popular than before. Why?

أعتقد أن الأطفال هم مستقبلنا (I Believe Our Children are the Future)

More and more Israelis are sending their kids to Arabic-Hebrew bilingual schools. Are parents pursuing peace with their tots?

Long Ago, in the Cowshed

An American-Israeli posts on Facebook that Benny Gantz, who is challenging Netanyahu for Israelis premiership, exposed himself to her 42 years ago, when they were both in high school. Now what?

Extra Patron Segment

For our most generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment a recent essay in Haaretz by Anschel Pfeffer, on-the-nosedly headlined, "After Replacing Netanyahu, Gantz's Party Will Self-destruct. And That's OK." But is it really OK?

Music

By child reality star turned teenage internet star turned just normal-old-23-year-old-pop-star, Shira Margalit!

Hey, Niv
Imma Tzodeket Tamid
Od Lo
Ba ve-Holekh

The "With Us or Agin' Us!" Edition Feb 28, 2019

Show notes

Noah Efron, Don Futterman, and Time of Israel Ops & Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

The Coalition Prohibition Supposition

No Palestinian-Israeli party has ever joined the country's ruling coalition. Has the time come to break that taboo?

Judaeo-Scriptio Continua

Israel's "New Right" Party launches a campaign proposing that Judaism, Israeli identity and right-wing politics fit together hand-in-glove. Is it gonna get them votes?

Moving Advice

Your friend asks for help moving into a new apartment in a West-Bank settlement. Should you do it?

Extra Patron Segment

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment a remarkable essay in Tablet Magazine by former editor at Wired and the Times and plutonium-grade mensch Mark Horowitz called, "Michael Sfard Can't Win," about how very nearly impossible it is to say anything about Israel and be heard.

Music

Shira Gavrielov (and her Dad, Miki, and friends):

Noten Li Koach
Kshehaolam Yaatzor, with E-Z
Ani Ve'ata (with Miki Gavrielov)
The Pain

The "Out with the Old, In with the New" Edition Feb 21, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

They'd Like to Teach the World to Sing

Can a single political party long endure with some members who are Two-State Solution types and others who are Never-Palestinian-State sorts, and some members who see the ultra-Orthodox as partners and others who see them as anathema? The new centrist mega-party "Blue & White" does just that: Is it a civil war in the making?

The Prime Minister Israel Never Had

Tzipi Livni was almost Prime Minister and, as Foreign Minister, she almost signed a peace accord with the Palestinians. Why, then, do only one in a hundred Israelis support her, bringing her brilliant career to an ignoble end?

You'll Weld 'til we Tell You to Stop Welding

Are market forces making it impossible for welders, metalsmiths, carpenters, upholsterers, cobblers, tailors, and mechanics to do what they do in Tel Aviv? Is every meter of real estate in the city destined to be fancy housing for rich folks?

Extra Patron Segment

For our most intemperately generous Patreon supporters, we will discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the Forward's primer, "How To Speak About The Israel Lobby In A Non-Anti-Semitic Way," the latest salvo in Opinion Editor Batya Ungar-Sargon's copiously ambitious program to renovate the whole damn American Left, as a first step towards renovating American Jewish politics.

Music

Afor Gashum, who's celebrating 30 years of their hugely influential samizdat 1989 cassette, February.

Pashut ve-Tiv'i
Shir Pop '67
Hinei Ba ha-Geshem
Tinshemet

The "Befuddled, Belabored, Bereaved & Beloved" Edition Feb 14, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and writer, TV host, and activist Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Primary Dolours

According to polls, fifteen political parties have a decent shot of being elected to the Knesset. Only three of those – Meretz, Labor, and Likud – hold open primaries where eligible dues-paying party members vote to determine the party list. Effusive reporters described these primaries as a "celebration of democracy." Others, like former Labor PM Ehud Barak, expressed their antipathy for the process. Are primaries good or bad for Israeli democracy? If not through primaries, then how ought Knesset candidates be chosen?

Belabored

Last Friday, in one outlier poll, the Labor Party fell below the election threshold needed to be seated in the Knesset. This means that, if the elections were held last week, and if that poll were right, the Labor Party would not be represented in the Knesset for the first time in Israel's 71 year history. Should we be concerned about the travails – and the incipient disappearance – of the Labor Party? If so, what, if anything, should we do about it?

Bereaved = Beloved?

Of all those being wooed in this election season, perhaps no one has been wooed with more verve than Miriam Peretz, an Israel Prize Life Achievement Award recipient whose two boys were killed as active combat soldiers. But she would be the first to say that the admiration with which she is held draws its force mostly from the death of her kids. Do these extravagant efforts to recruit Peretz to Knesset politics (which apparently failed), reflect a "culture of bereavement" here that is gendered, and sees in bereaved mothers, above all, a symbol of the uprightness of much of who we are and what we do?

Music

The power and glory of AvevA

My Heart
Toy vs. Breathe
Black
Megedenga (Gigi Cover)

The "Black & White, Left & Right" Edition Feb 07, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Times of Israel Ops & Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra segment?

Likud Renewed, Dude!

The Likud primaries are here! We wonder what composite portrait they paint of the heart, soul and physiognomy of the party.

Being Black

The rage and heartache of Ethiopian-Israelis came front and center as they protest police brutality and so much else. How are we – three white folks – ought to understand their pain and rage?

Our World According to Conan

How do we make sense of Conan O'Brien's attempt to make sense of Israel?

Extra Segment

We discuss the huge, building-sized billboards of PM Netanyahu shaking hands with US President Donald Trump under the slogan, "Netanyahu: In a League of his Own." Why? Why? WHY?

Music

Half Ayala Ingedashet and half Orit Tashoma (on the occasion of the big demonstration):

Basar Va Dam (Flesh and Blood)
La-Nua (Moving)
Tov Li Achshav (All's Good Now)
Bo Elay (Come to Me)

The "Bullsh*t Solutions to Bullsh*t Problems?" Edition Jan 31, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Become a patron and gain access to our weekly extra special, special extra segments.

Bullshit Solutions to Bullshit Problems?

Is the election campaign about anything that matters (or anything at all)?

The Change We Seek

MK Dov Khenin resigned on the grounds that there are better ways to bring political change than the Knesset. Is he on to something?

Some Jews are Arabs, Too

An appeal has been brought before the Supreme Court to overturn the Nation-State Law on the grounds that downgrading Arabic also discriminates against Mizrahi Jews. Is this the winning argument against the bill?

Extra Segment

Rosanne Barr and Shmueli Boteach barnstorm Israel to make the point that Israel rocks and anti-semites suck. But to what end?

Music

Benaia Barabi

Boker Tov (בוקר טוב)
Tel Aviv ba-Laila (תל אביב בלילה)
Mishehu Iti Kan (מישהו איתי כאן)
Me-ha-Kfar el ha-Ir (מהכפר אל העיר)

The "Lessons of War" Edition Jan 24, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

No 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict'?

Journalist and best-selling author Matti Friedman argues in the New York Times that if you think of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians "as a problem that can be solved by an agreement between them," then you don't understand it.

1,364 Dead Terrorists

Former IDF Chief of Staff and present candidate for Prime Minister Benny Gans boasts in his campaign videos of killing 1,364 terrorists and destroying whole city blocks in the Gaza war in 2014. Do body-counts have a place in political campaigns?

Morriskeit

Historian Benny Morris, on his retirement from teaching, predicts that in a generation's time, Jews will become a persecuted minority in Palestine, because Palestinians will never accept a Jewish state on this embattled land. Morris is a scholar's scholar, but also a long-time and lugubrious melancholic. What should we make of his dismal prediction?

Extra Segment

Michelle Alexander argues in the Times that, were he alive today, MLK would be all in on BDS. We ask, WTF?

Music

The happy energy of Moshe Peretz

Yesh li Otakh (יש לי אותך)
Sukar ba-Café (סוכר בקפה)
Hakol Itakh Dvash (הכל איתך דבש)
Hainu Shnaim (חיינו שניים), with Nasrin Kadrin

The "Son of God, with a Side of Fries" Edition Jan 17, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Never Netanyahu?

Labor Party head dares and double-dares the heads of other parties in the center and on the left to swear on a million bibles that they'll never join a Netanyahu government. Good politics or just more dumbassery?

Son of God, with a Side of Fries

There is blood on the streets of Haifa after the city art museum raises an exhibit including "McJesus," a sculpture of Ronald McDonald on the cross, and demonstrations of offended Christians turn violent. How do you mesh artistic freedom and sensitivity to religious beliefs?

The (Too) Low Cost of Learning

An Israeli Nobel laureate says the country's universities need to get hip to the logic of the market, and octuple tuitions. Does he have a point?

Extra Segment

Allison Kaplan Sommer (the Notorious AKS) talks us through the heartaches and controversies surrounding this weekend's Women's March in America.

Music

Liora Isaac

Ma'ala Ma'ala
Zagori Imperia, with Hadar Shmueli
Ha-Laila Hatunah
Periferia

The "Goose, Gander & Duck" Edition Jan 10, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Terrorists, Murderers or Just Kids?

Five fifteen years-olds suspected of killing a Palestinian mother of nine by pelting her car with rocks are interrogated by the Shin Bet without being allowed to consult a lawyer to speak to their parents. Are the kids' rights are being trampled?

Uniformity

A Hebrew U. prof who tells a student who complained about being treated uncivilly by a classmate because she came to class in uniform that she cannot expect others to treat her like a civilian when she's dressed like a soldier. Should we be outraged?

Breeding Socialists in Schoolyards

In 2019, if a person joins an "educators' kibbutz," forgoing money, property and autonomy for the sake of higher ideals, are they a cultish dupe or a vanguard of a better future? Is capital-normativity the last great hegemony?

Extra Segment

As you generous people asked, we discuss the legacy of Moshe Arens, may his memory be for a blessing, who died this week.

MusicRam Orion, who will be playing at Levontin 7 on January 23.