The Promised Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The "Benjamin Netanyahu's New World Order" Edition Jun 21, 2018

Show notes

Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor Miriam Herschlag, 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.

Listen to the extra segment.

Benjamin Netanyahu's New World Order

According to reports, PM Netanyahu used the threat of Iran's nuclearization to build, strengthen and solidify relations with the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, sometimes behind the back of the American. Should we be high-fiving him, or tsk-tsking?

Mothballing The Hope

Tel Aviv University doesn't play Israel's national anthem at graduation, out of respect for the feelings of Muslims and Christians. Is this self-abnegation, as some argue, or a brave step towards a more inclusive Israeli future?

Notes on Camp (with Apologies to Susan Sontag)

Should Jewish summer camps teach campers "the Palestinian narrative"?

Music

Miriam Toukan

We Are Young (with SAZ)
A Traveler's Prayer (Quartetoukan)
I loved you, Haifa (Quartetoukan)
Wolf with Lamb (with Idan Toledano)

The "Terror with a Tail!" Edition Jun 14, 2018

Show notes

Outgoing International Director of Haaretz Charlotte Halle, 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.

Hear the extra segment on Patreon.

Terror with a Tail!

The flaming kites lofted by Palestinians into Israel have caused tens of millions in damage and left wasted millions of square meters of fields, forests and settlements. But is it right to call them "terror kites"?

Golan Heights?

A new musical features the music of the great Mizrahi pop singer, Eyal Golan, who was accused five years ago of having consensual sex with underaged girls in icky and abusive circumstances. Many protest, but is there racism and hypocrisy in their ostensible, Me-Too-ish feminism?

Advancing the Secular Lifestyle, One City at a Time

Do we need "secular politics" that advance "secular identity" and a "secular agenda" in Israel's upcoming local elections?

Music

Pinhas Uvanav

Mahol ha-Teiruf
Ani Eshtagea
Shekufah
Ken Zeh Hasar Sikui Akh Beini Le-Vein Atzmi Ha-Kol Mutar

The "Drawing Lines" Edition Jun 07, 2018

Show notes

Noah Efron, Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor Miriam Herschlag, and Ha'aretz columnist Bradley Burston discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Listen to this week's extra segment.

Cabel News

A Labor Party stalwart breaks ranks and says that some of the settlements should be annexed to Israel, as a first step to an eventual peace. His colleagues on the left call him nuts, but is he maybe nutty like a fox?

Messi Politics

Football great Lionel Messi and the Argentinian National Team cancel a friendly match against Israel after it was moved from Haifa to Jerusalem. Is this a turning point in Israeli attitudes about BDS?

To the Class of 2018

Michael Chabon tells newly ordained Rabbis to end their fetishist obsession with keeping Jews Jews, and tells Israelis to stop their us-vs.-them exclusionary wall-building. Mightn't he have a point?

Music

Hadar Maoz

Lali Lavat
Azizam
Halleluyah
Anar Anar

The "The Sheep Goes Baaah, the Cow Goes Moooo, the Trident Missile Goes Whoosh-Boom!" Edition May 31, 2018

Show notes

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

Junior Partners in the Jewish People?

Israelis tell pollsters that the opinions of American Jews about what happens here matter, but not too much. What does this say about relations between the two biggest Jewish communities on earth?

Toying with Anti-Semitism

A Dutch parody of Israel's Eurovision song includes lyrics about how Israelis control the world and love money. What do we do when legitimate criticism of Israel gets all jumbled up with old-fashioned anti-semitism?

The Sheep Goes Baaah, the Cow Goes Moooo, the Trident Missile Goes Whoosh-Boom!

Should the folks who sell us our trident missiles and F-35 stealth bombers be allowed to donate to us us the schools that shape our children (like so much plastic explosive)?

Music

Bones Garage

Equals
Seasons Break
Great Rift
The New Religion

The "Republikud & Labocrats?" Edition May 24, 2018

Show notes

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

Click here to listen to the extra segment.

Republikud & Labocrats?

Should Israel's election system be rejiggered to do away with all the pesky, small parties? Most Israeli say yes.

The Great Sort, Sort Of

Are Israelis sorting ourselves according to our political beliefs (like Americans and Brits seem to be doing)?

LGBTQ: Lieutenants, Generals, Battalion-Commanders, Technical-Specialists, & Quartermasters

Is the promotion of an out, gay IDF officer to the high rank of Major-General a happy sign of integration or a worrying sign of cooptation? Or a little from Column A and a little from Column B?

Music

Erez Nataf, in celebration of his remarkable new album, "From Tunisia to Jerusalem"

Azamer BiShvahin
Ya Ribon Olam
Yigdal
Min HaMeytsar

Why why why! "Chutzpah" May 22, 2018

Show notes

This episode of Why why why! features stories on the theme of "Chutzpah"as told by Gwen Dreilinger, Mel Lidman, Alon Tal, Chavi Karkowsky, Judy Maltz, and Ibrihim Ahadi.

Next month's event will be held on June 4th (details) and will feature stories on the theme, "Talkin' About a Revolution!"

Pitch us stories about revolutions you've seen, fomented or undergone: personal, political, cultural, sexual, military, musical, sartorial, whatever! Or just come to have a beer and listen. Either way, you have nothing to lose but your chains! Well, also your sobriety, as the evening is free, with a one drink minimum.

Music by Itamar Haluts

The "I'm Not Your Toy (But Nix the Joy)!" Edition May 17, 2018

Show notes

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

Click here to listen to the extra segment.

Sixty-One Dead

With a good deal of angst of our own, we ask the questions we often ask in the face of this sort of horrid perplexity: What ought we think? What ought we do?

Tel Aviv is to Jerusalem as Freedom is to Decency?

Jerusalem bans a right-wing billboard for incitement, while the same billboard is plastered all over Tel Aviv. Which should we prefer: Free expression, Tel Aviv style, or decency in the public square, Jerusalem style?

I'm Not Your Toy (Nix the Joy)!

Netta Barzilai wins the friggin' Eurovision Song Contest, and many leftist Israelis' reaction is a mirthless, bah-humbug! Does the left have a problem with national pride and just-plain happiness?

Music

All songs from the Jacob's Ladder Festival, Two Days of Peace, Love & Music!

Itamar Haluts - Alexandra-Clyde

Dov Hammer - Her Love is Like a Rock

Heebie Gee Bees - Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)

Kim in the Sun - Light of God

The "Age of Uncertainty" Edition May 10, 2018

Show notes

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

Click here to listen to the extra segment.

The Age of Uncertainty

What thoughts, fears, hopes, worries and other reactions does Trump's decision (and the escalation in the North) raise in us, people who are watching with worry as they open and prepare bomb-shelters up north, who very much hope never to be incinerated along with their dogs, cats and children, and who have kids in the infantry?

The Long Arm of Israeli (Rabbinic) Law

Is the "Rabbinic Courts Bill (Marriage and Divorce)" as risible as its critics make it seem? After all, it is meant to ameliorate the terrible suffering of thousands of women. If it can do that, doesn't it perhaps justify a little expansion of Israeli Rabbinic authority? What's a little international Rabbinic hegemony among Jews?

Boots on the Ground

What do we think about 'tiyul' culture? Does it partakes of, and advance, a politics that is not our own? What is to be done with the tiyul?

Music Blue Pill

The "Israel First!" Edition May 03, 2018

Show notes

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

Hear this week's extra segment.

Not THAT Jewish Agency

Is the most important unseen force in Israeli politics the great divide between those who think that Israelis have it in our power to bring peace, and those fatalists who think, in the end, it just ain't up to us?

Israel First!

Three leading industrialists say the way to make Israel great again is to put "Israel First," and flip the bird to economic globalism. Are they right?

Darwin on the Down Low

The Jerusalem Museum of Natural History cover up exhibits on evolution when ultra-Orthodox kids come to visit: Respectful pluralism or despicable cravenness?

Music

Ella Ronen

The "What About Natalie?" Edition Apr 26, 2018

Show notes

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

Pfeffer's Netanyahu, Netanyahu's Israel

Sparks fly when Haaretz correspondent Anshel Pfeffer joins us to discuss his new book, "Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu".

Ben Gurion and the Matrix

Should Israel's old Labor elite be lionized nostalgically or instead consigned to the dustbin of history?

What About Natalie?

Oh, Natalie!

Music

Pele Ozen, in honor of their new single, Hilchot Ger, the profits of which all go to the fight against the deportation of the African Refugees