The Promised Podcast

Latest Episodes:

'Sextremism' in the war on patriarchy is no vice! Jun 26, 2014

Show notes

Is it time to revive Israel's vicious political debate?

The solidarity engendered in Israeli society by the West Bank kidnappings is genuinely moving, but is it preventing us from holding our leaders to account?

Is the great summer exodus a search for 'normality'?

More and more Israelis are fleeing the country for trips abroad. What are they trying to escape? Do they want to see what life is like in 'normal' countries?

Free and fearless Amazons: The chest as a weapon of protest

The new 'sextremist' feminist group Femen has hit Israel with its bare-breasted Amazon protestors. Will they win Israeli hearts and minds?

Playlist:

The tuba-based surf music of Boom Pam:

Surfing Tuba

Light Up

Hatul ve-Hatula

Wedding song

Losing Patience, Losing Power, & Losing Dignity Jun 19, 2014

Show notes

This episode of the Promised Podcast doesn't deal with the recent West Bank teen kidnappings straight-up; it's already been instrumentalized by too many, based on too few facts. We adhere to Ludwig Wittgenstein's dictum: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

Allison, Don & Noah discuss:

Have we lost patience with settlers?

Is mainstream Israel losing patience with settlers, as found in a recent poll conducted by an institution that supports the settlements?

Is Netanyahu's stonewalling beginning to crumble?

How long can Prime Minster Netanyahu go on being the Peace Process' "obstructionist-in-chief?' Has he lost his grip?

Why swooning over the Stones just isn't cool

Is our joy over the Stones, Neil Young, Lady Gaga and other A-List acts coming to Israel just a little pathetic?

Music:

All songs by Baladino, singing in the dying language of Ladino, from their new album “Dos Amantes”:

La Kumida La Manyana

Si Veriash A La Rana

A Sinyora Novia

Kuando El Rey Nimrod

Oy, the dissonance! Jun 12, 2014

Show notes

Allison, Don & Noah discuss:

Rubi Rivlin: A man of contradictions

What to make of Israel’s newly elected President, Rubi Rivlin, a mensch (good guy) who also opposes a two-state solution? Oy, the dissonance!

A pro-Palestinian settler leader?

The startling NY Times op-ed by a settler leader who insists that Israel must hatch a “bold plan to improve every aspect of day-to-day life for Palestinians”: What gives?

Is this the end of prisoner swaps?

A cabinet decision to prohibit future pardons of murderers, ruling out Gilad Shalit-style prisoner exchanges.

Music:

All songs by Assaf Amdursky & Karni Postel, from their lovely new live album:

Rabim HaYamim

Ma'ayan

Mashehu SheAni Lo Yachol

Rakevet LaTsafon

Hamas, Darwin & Google Jun 05, 2014

Show notes

Hamas-Fatah reconciliation: Just suck it up?

How the hell should we react to the reunification of Hamas and Fatah in the Palestinian Authority?

The right to remain unremembered

Do Israelis need “the right to be forgotten” on the internet?

Where did evolution go?

Why did it take 66 years for evolution to make it into Israeli schools?

Music: All songs by the awe-inspiring Balkan Beat Box

Move It

War Again

Balcasio

Part of the Glory

Dining Out on Sacred Cow May 29, 2014

Show notes

Allison, Don, Noah and special guest star, author Ayelet Waldman discuss:

The thinnest of lines — between 'Jewish' and 'Democratic'

How do Jews around the world think Israel ought to balance its “democratic” and “Jewish” values? The Jewish People Policy Institute's new report, “Jewish and Democratic: Perspectives from World Jewry,” shows that diaspora Jews view Jewish values as essentially democratic ones. But what about the rights of non-Jewish minorities in Israel?

Romanticizing the Draft?

A Knesset member put forth a proposal to end the draft in favor of an all-volunteer army. This would appease ultra-Orthodox Israelis and other who are against the draft, but most Israelis are against replacing conscription with a volunteer professional army. Apart from the more practical considerations, canceling the draft would undermine Israeli society's romantic and nationalistic image of the army as a melting pot and expression of citizenship.

'You Can't Go Home Again'

After spending her salad days in Israel, author Ayelet Waldman emigrated to the U.S. and didn't return for twenty years. Now she's back for a visit and has come to the TLV1 studio to tell us whether, as Thomas Wolfe wrote, you can't go home again.

For Richer or Poorer, for Better or Verse May 22, 2014

Show notes

Allison, Eilon, and Noah discuss:

Why one MK has complained that “we have become a country of idiots that does not respect the Torah,” in response to the wild celebrations following Maccabi Tel Aviv's victory in the European basketball championship; why a famous Hebrew University historian asserts that the victory is “the biggest proof that Zionism has failed when it comes to sports;”Whether the minimum wage should be boosted by 30%, as advocated by 61 Members of Knesset and by basically no economists;The state of poetry in Israel, including soulful readings of translations of our favorite Hebrew poems.All this and new political music by the redoubtable David Broza!

Music: All songs by David Broza, from his latest album East Jersualem –West Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem (with Wyclef Jean)

What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding

Peace (Ain’t Nothing but a Word)

Jerusalem

The conflict? There's an app for that now May 15, 2014

Show notes

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss:

“iNakba,” an iPhone app that aims to put the dispossession of Palestinian homes and villages into your pocket;

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to “legally define the Talmud as the basis of the Israeli legal system” and to make the Jewish calendar the official calendar of the state;

and whether Israel, like the rest of the west, is experiencing a “crisis of authority” that makes it impossible to govern

Music: All songs by indie mainstay Kob, from his new record 'Tugat ha-Mafsidim'

Pitom AtLiat Shel Yom ShishiTugat ha-MafsidimAl Kol Ele

Drawing Lines & Drawing Conclusions May 08, 2014

Show notes

Allison, Don and Noah discuss (1) Why the Conference of Presidents decided to keep J-Street out of their nifty club, and what’ll happen as a result, and (2) Why the proliferating “alternative” ceremonies for Memorial Day and Independence day piss off so many. Plus (3) OurFirst Annual Promised Podcast State of the State Addresses (or, for you commonwealth times, our First Annual Speech from the Throne). All this and rocking with Noam Navo!

Music: All songs by Noam Navo

Kol Yom Ani Me’abedet – cover of Chava AlbersteinPirurimHamabulMashehu nofel

Politicizing, Psychologizing & Corporatizing May 01, 2014

Show notes

Show Summary – Allison, Don, Eilon and Noah discuss (1) Whether we are cheapening the memory of the Holocaust by applying it to our present-day politics, (2) Whether the amateur Abbasologists filing newspaper opinion columns have a clue about what motivates Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and (3) Whether or not the remodeling of Israeli schools into cubical habitats to prepare kids for office life should make us want to barf. All this, and the music of Dafna ve-ha Oogiot!

Music: All songs by Dafna ve-ha-Oogiot (with special thanks to the brilliant and charming NYU PhD candidate Sandy Fox for the tip)Dafna PikWhat a manThe future looks promisingPoor thing

Shutting Down, Mouthing Off & Paying Up Apr 24, 2014

Show notes

Allison, Don and Noah discuss:

Mahmoud Abbas’ two “Hail Mary” plays, either dismantling the Palestinian Authority or joining up with HamasThe new 83 year-old head of the Council of Torah Sages, who gave a crowd-pleasin’ inaugural address calling all those who are not ultra-orthodox “ignoramuses” who “pursue nonsense”The mind-blowing new report of the OECD that finds that Israel is “the land of low taxes”

Music: All Songs by Uzi Ramirez, in honor of his new album that just came out last week, Cheese in My Pocket

I know its mine

Cheese in my Pocket

Surrender

The elevator goes up and down

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