Since resuming America’s on-again off-again war with Iran, President Trump has left astute observers of military strategy slack-jawed. Among them is Andrew Fox, a repeat State of Tel Aviv and Beyond guest and one of those rare individuals who brings rich experience from the battlefield, backroom policy and military discussions. These days Fox is immersed in the academic side of things. Fox came out swinging earlier this week with an essay very candidly discussing the lack of strategy in American policy regarding its conflict with Iran. Articulated goals change - frequently and dramatically. The lack of consistency and discipline in the way in which America is handing Iran is worrisome. Very. Fox and I get into what America seems to be doing in Iran and why it should either focus its blurry war strategy or cut its losses and pull out. This is not a real estate deal. And it’s unclear that the President understands that.

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Podcast Notes:

Essay by Andrew Fox published on July 20, 2026, which formed the basis of this discussion:

Andrew Fox

America is winning every battle against Iran. It is still losing the war.

Over Iran on Sunday night, the Americans returned to work. The latest three-hour operation marked the ninth consecutive night of strikes, spanning Iran’s industrial interior and much of its southern coastline. Confirmed impacts were reported at Tabriz, Bandar Imam Khomeini, Bandar-e Mahshahr, Khormoj, Sirik, Bandar-e Jask, Chabahar and Konarak. Reports from Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Abadan and Khorramabad remained unconfirmed, as did suggestions of Kuwaiti participation at Bandar Imam Khomeini. CENTCOM said its aircraft and missiles struck military command centres, air defence and coastal surveillance sites, maritime assets, launch facilities and communications networks. The map radiated with overwhelming American reach. Almost anywhere in Iran can be struck and struck again…

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8 days ago · 62 likes · 30 comments · Andrew Fox

Andrew Fox is a former British Army Major and frontline conflict researcher specialising in modern warfare. A former senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he is now a senior associate fellow at several international think tanks and a regular media commentator on global conflicts.

He writes the Fox on War Substack and co-hosts The Brink podcast, bringing field reporting and strategic analysis from conflicts including Gaza and Ukraine.

This evening at sundown marks the onset of Tisha B’Av, a 25-hour period in the Jewish calendar which is the saddest of the year. We commemorate and remember the destruction of the First and Second Temples, among the most important events in Jewish history. These disasters led to the dispersal of the Jewish people for thousands of years. They never abandoned their dream of returning to their ancient homeland, but throughout the centuries of exile they were persecuted ruthlessly and relentlessly. In Spain. England. Throughout Europe. In the middle east. And today, we are clearly in the early stages of yet another era of extreme tumult. For Jews.

In this episode I speak with Dr. Yiftach Shalev of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Just a few weeks ago, Dr. Shalev and his team discovered charred wooden beams used in the construction of a grand home adjacent to the First Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians. The parallels regarding what transpired during this time and on October 7 are eerie. And we are only able to understand the commonalities because of strides in scientific and forensic analysis.

Think about it. For a wooden beam charred more than 2,000 years ago to be preserved so that it can be analyzed is extraordinary. What kind of wood was used? Where did it come from? Why did it not decay? Dr. Shalev analyses the detail to preserve and present the big picture. The attackers had a plan. They ignited concentrated fires that incinerated the Temple and adjacent buildings, with temperatures reaching 700 degrees Celsius. Just as Hamas did on October 7. They had a similar plan, going house to house, torching the living and murdered.

Everything about this story is fascinating; the scientific advances that make this forensic archaeological work possible. And how much it enhances our understanding of the present, in the context of the past. This is more than archaeology. It is history, war, conquest, and political reality tumbled together. If nothing else listen to the introduction and watch the two minute video. You’ll be hooked by then. Trust me. I have never been one to show great interest in “archaeological” stories. This changed everything.

Podcast Notes

Dr. Yiftah Shalev is a leading field archaeologist and the Scientific Advisor for the Jerusalem District of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Over the course of his career, he has directed and participated in major excavations throughout Israel. He spent fifteen years excavating at Tel Dor, one of the most important archaeological sites on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, before turning his primary research focus to Jerusalem.

Since 2017, Shalev has co-led the Givati Parking Lot excavations in ancient Jerusalem. The excavations he directs have reshaped our understanding of the city’s development from the Iron Age through the Persian and Hellenistic periods. Among the remarkable discoveries he has helped bring to light are a monumental rock-cut moat that once divided ancient Jerusalem, an elite public building destroyed during the Babylonian conquest of 586 BCE, the first decorated ivory panels discovered in Jerusalem, and vessels that once contained wine flavored with vanilla. He is also advancing a pioneering interdisciplinary project that uses cosmic-ray muons to investigate underground spaces and structures without excavation.

Following the October 7, 2023 attacks, Shalev was called upon to take part in the emergency effort in the communities near the Gaza border, where he used archaeological methods as part of the search for missing persons.

Shalev is a teaching fellow at Tel Aviv University and Jerusalem University College. He has published extensively on the archaeology of Jerusalem, ancient economy, and Mediterranean trade networks. His interdisciplinary research has appeared in leading journals, including PNAS, Scientific Reports, PLOS ONE, the Journal of Applied Physics, the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Tel Aviv, and the Israel Exploration Journal. He is married, a father of three, and enjoys hiking and traveling with his family.

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It is great to have Ya’akov Katz back from his holiday in the Canadian wilderness. He is just in time to help unpack and decipher the political chaos that has intensified in Israel in recent weeks.

In fact, this past week may have been one of the most consequential since October 7 in Israel. As we begin the countdown to elections on October 27 a very harsh reality is taking shape.

We begin by paying tribute to Senator Lindsay Graham z”l, touch on the latest escalation in the conflict between Iran and America and then move to the main event: the pending Israeli elections and the mess that PM Benjamin Netanyahu has made of Israel.

We are led by a 76-year-old man who seems incapable of relinquishing power. Bibi has led an unprecedented blitz of legislation that was jammed through the Knesset in the last two weeks. The flurry of laws further empowers the ultra-orthodox haredim and other extremists who constitute the coalition government. Netanyahu has sold out the majority; the Israelis who work, pay taxes, and serve in the army. He has put the IDF in an untenable position. The demands his government places on the military are beyond excessive. The IDF Chief of Staff has been warning for months that they are unable to properly defend the state and the people. But Netanyahu is quite prepared to court that risk in order to stay in power. He has acceded to outright political extortion to appease the haredim, while enraging everyone else.

We continue to look at how the election playing field is shaping up and who may be the main individuals and parties leading up to October 27. Never before has more been at stake.

Ya’akov and I get into what is a profound betrayal by the Prime Minister of Israel’s national values in order to further his partisan interests. And, of course, his personal goals. If you missed it yesterday you might want to read the Wrap that we published which gets into more detail about the shenanigans in the Knesset of the last two weeks and how imperiled is democracy in Israel. We’ve lost our way. This election is critical for re-calibrating everything in this country. If we don’t….

Just this morning, Ya’akov Katz’s weekly column in the Jerusalem Post further addressed the issues we discuss in the pod. Well worth reading. The link is below:

Israel’s government knew the risks of haredi draft evasion – and ignored them - opinion

Leadership is supposed to be about making difficult decisions for the good of the country, even when they carry political costs. What we saw this week is the opposite.

Continue reading

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Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist. Between 2016 and 2023, Yaakov was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post where he continues to write a popular weekly column.

He is the author of three books: “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards—How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War.”

Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.

In 2013, Yaakov was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya and their four children.

Find Yaakov Katz on X.

More info here about the book

“Crisply written... draws on excellent sources within Israel’s military and intelligence services.” —The Wall Street Journal

A powerful indictment of the political and military decisions that led to October 7

While Israel Slept tells the gripping inside story of how Hamas, Israel’s weakest enemy, succeeded in launching a surprise attack on one of the world’s most powerful militaries. Through a detailed examination of the events leading up to October 7, 2023, the book exposes the intelligence and strategic failures that enabled this devastating invasion. It takes readers back in time, showing how years of complacency, mistaken intelligence analysis, and a misguided policy of containment enabled Hamas to prepare for an assault that Israel did not believe was possible and that would change the Middle East.

The book unveils the dramatic events of the night before the attack, highlighting the cracks in Israel’s military and political leadership. It provides unprecedented details on how key warnings were missed, and how Israel ignored the growing threat from Hamas, believing that the group was weak and deterred. By exposing these failures, While Israel Slept offers a stark, sobering account of how overconfidence and complacency paved the way for disaster, while underscoring the critical lessons Israel must embrace to safeguard its future.

Editor’s Note: I have been down and out with a really intense and disruptive episode of sciatica for three weeks now. For those of you who have had the experience (40% of adults do) then you understand. For those of you who have been spared to now – be grateful.

I seem to be turning a corner but am reluctant to say so with certainty. It’s a slow road back…but if things go well, then you should receive two podcasts in the coming week. I have not been nearly as productive as usual. Thanks for your understanding.

Lindsey Graham z”l

Senator Lindsay Graham’s suddden passing last Saturday night was shocking and distressing to so many.

He was among the last of an increasingly rare type of public figure; serious, thoughtful principled, courageous. He was politically brilliant and understood how to navigate and manage power. He also knew history, the best predictor for the future.

As with anyone who has been kicking around in political life for decades, I had the good fortune of being in the room with Senator Graham on several occasions. His gentlemanly demeanor, wickedly sharp humor, and moral clarity have been remarked upon by many who knew him well.

In recent days, we have all seen so many clips and heard stories about what a mensch Senataor Graham was. I thought I’d share with you a beautiful remembrance from Channel 12’s man in Washington, Barak Ravid.

Ravid is a superb journalist who has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the toughest shark pool anywhere - the press corps covering the White House. He seems to speak constantly with President Trump. (This must drive Netanyahu crazy. Bibi regards Ravid as being the quintessential Tel Aviv leftist, elitist, deep state kind of guy.) Ravid also had a very close relationship with Senator Graham. He shared his thoughts about Lindsey Graham shortly after his passing:

Senator Lindsey Graham z”l .

And now – to the Wrap…..focusing, as we do, on important issues going down in Israel that enhance your understanding of this long, drawn out moment of crisis.

All English subtitles were done on Wednesday night by our editorial assistant and social media maven, Maya Naftolin.

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Shin Bet – Loyal to – Whom?

“I took this job because of my loyalty to Bibi.”

For some reason, David Zini – the head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service– felt compelled to make that comment early last week.

Zini was appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu in October 2025 to run the “Shabak” (as Israelis call it – they have a nickname for everything). His remark about loyalty ignited a national uproar. It is written – in the law creating and constituting the Shabak – that the loyalty of all service members is first and foremost to the State of Israel. One would hardly think that merits stating. The separation of political and state interests is as basic as it gets in a democracy.

In the wake of the public blowback to Zini’s comment, a remarkable (and unprecedented) meeting was convened. President Isaac Herzog invited Zini and Israeli Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg, to meet in his residence in Jerusalem. Sohlberg also serves as the Chair of the Elections Committee, which is tasked by law to ensure that free and fair elections are held.

Zini stated (for the cameras) that he understands his legal duty and loyalties. Beneath the surface politeness lurked something very dark. The link below shows edited excerpts of the at the President’s residence. That the President thought it necessary to host this highly unusual meeting is disturbing. The clip below is subtitled in English. It opens with President Herzog’s very pointed remark: “Elections are not civil war. Elections are a very important, meaningful, social. democratic political process in a nation’s life.”

Herzog speaks first. then Sohlberg. Zini is last.

(Excuse the odd spelling slip. We know. “Manor” should be “manner.” And one or two others. I did not want to delay getting this out any longer.)

As you can see, President Herzog took the opportunity to reassure the Israeli public that no off-side partisan or political interests will be invoked to prevent a free and fair election from taking place. Concern regarding the possbility of Netanyahu attempting to subvert the election in order to preserve his hold on power has been discussed quite openly in recent weeks. Among the speculative scenarios? That if the polls were not favoring the extremist Netanyahu bloc - he might engineer a crisis. War, perhaps. The threat of war. And that his loyal deputy - David Zini - would back up such a move by saying that in light of the volatility in the country and region, elections must be postponed. Security concerns.

The reaction from the Israeli media and public to Zini’s loyalty pledge to the Prime Minister set off a thermonuclear chain reaction throughout society. And the hypothetical scenario I raise above is not considered to be exaggerated. Given what this government has been doing throughout its tenure, but particularly in the last few weeks, general concern regarding the health of Israeli democracy is intense.

Last Thursday’s meeting presented an opportunity for this troika – Zini, Sohlberg and Herzog – to state what should be taken for granted in a democracy: that collectively they are committed to ensuring the integrity of the election.

In this government, denigrating the judiciary has become normalized. The Minister of Justice and Speaker of the Knesset have refused (pretty much throughout the life of this coalition) to acknowledge the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – even at ceremonial functions. The process by which he was appointed is seen by this government to be rigged and skewed to favoring leftist elitists. Had their judicial overhaul legislation been pushed through in 2023, he would not have assumed the position.

So, rather than graciously managing the interruption to their radical judicial “reform” plans as a result of October 7, political leadership decided to refuse to interact with the Chief Justice and his subordinates. At all.

Yaakov Katz (a regular guest on our podcast) wrote a superb column last Friday about this issue. He cautions that a democracy can very quickly turn into something else….in plain view; the culmination of many small steps along a continuum. You can read Yaakov’s column at the link below:

Israel might be headed towards its own January 6 moment - opinion

This is far from trivial. Ever since taking office in January 2023, this coalition has done everything it possibly could to undermine the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and the attorney-general.

Read in The Jerusalem Post

Sidebar: Justice Sohlberg’s home was vandalized in early June by a mob of ultra-orthodox men who were protesting recent arrests of haredi draft dodgers. The thugs smashed windows, caused damage to the garden, entry way, a car and attempted to break into the house while Sohlberg was inside with his family. This is civil war type conduct.

This. Is Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel.

And a late-breaking relevant development: On Wednesday night Israeli media reported that Minister of Transporation, Miri Regev (hardcore Bibi loyalist) is working with staff to possibly limit increased air traffic into the country in the days leading up to the election. All Israelis - including the 1-million citizens living abroad - are super motivated to cast their vote this time. (Voting must be done in person in Israel, with limited exceptions made for diplomats and some military personnel.)

Election 2026 is seen to be the most important ever in this country. More so than 1948. And the fear among Likud is that most of those who would fly from abroad to vote will not support the extremist bloc.

This is how gutter things in Israel have become.

Haredim and the Core National Value of Israel: Service

Israel has been built on an ethos of self-sacrifice in the interest of the greater good.

We serve. We show up. And we leave no one behind.

Without the IDF, the country would never have stood a chance. And until now, resentment and anger regarding the ultra-orthodox communities’ normalization of draft dodging (since 1948) has been tolerated. Barely.

I have written often about the increasingly severe shortage of soldiers since October 7, and the ultra-orthodox insistence that haredi young men of draft age be excluded from this sacred duty.

The haredi parties supported this coalition on several conditions, all cementing their autonomous and entitled position in Israel. Their foremost demand for supporting Netanyahu’s government was that religious study be enshrined in Basic Law (the country’s equivalent of a soft, draft constitution) as being a paramount national value, equal in importance to IDF service.

In the fraught national conversation on this topic, haredim refer to the law they have been determined to pass since pledging support to this coalition as the Torah Foundation law. Everyone else calls it the “Shirker’s/Draft Dodger’s” Law.

The passing of a law enshrining the idea that the study of Jewish religious texts, full time, is a foundational value of Israel is all the haredim care about. Because from that pledge, they believe, all else flows; exemption from army service and state financial support for the entitlements demanded by their constituents. Those of us who work, pay taxes and serve should, the haredim demand, pay for everything: a separate haredi education system, housing, utilities, gold plated universal medical and dental care, nurseries and child care, and more.

This issue came to a head last week.

Netanyahu and his coalition have been focused on a frenzied effort to jam a slew of laws through the Knesset before it dissolves in a few days, on July 17. Among the last minute legislation prioritized in this blitz is the Shirker’s Law, mentioned above.

This matter dominated the agenda of the Knesset House Committee last week. Public hearings were attended by United Torah Judaism faction leader, Yitzhak Goldknopf, among other MKs. It was a week like no other. Day after day, combat veterans suffering from PTSD, the mother of a murdered hostage, loved ones of those affected, blasted the Committee with desperate rage.

IDF veterans with severe PTSD have been overlooked by this government (and those that preceded it). They are allocated dreadfully inadequate psychological and life support. A handful appeared before the Committee last week, day after day. Their raw testimony left the country deeply distressed.

“We’re begging you,” said one burly man, sobbing, addressing Goldknopf directly. “We respect Torah learning. All our families came here with the same faith. But we want what we deserve.”

Another: “You are playing politics with our lives. Our blood. Six years you’ve been telling us that legislation is coming. Six years. What have you been doing?”

Another. “We are alive but dead inside.”

Another. “Where have you been for the last three years? What have you done? We gave of ourselves, our friends died, to protect all of us. “

Goldknopf at one point (to the veterans): “Tell me what you want. Write the law. Bring it to. Me. I will support everything you want. To my last drop of blood.”

One man, who literally got in the personal space of Goldknopf, his face mere inches from the portly old man (who has a weakness for Louis Vuitton scarves), pounded the table with his fist.

“Why are your exemptions more important than our mental health? We are not against Torah. It is in the Torah that we must fight to protect our people. On what basis do you declare that you are better than us? Superior? You have done nothing – for three years. Another soldier will die tonight. And you sit there and do nothing.”

Below, a collage of various heart-rending scenes from the Committee. Watch how they target Goldknopf. The soldiers “beg” Goldknopf. To understand that their souls are suffering. They were there. Everywhere. In the worst of it.

This Committee was tasked with ensuring that the Shirker’s Law be passed before the Knesset disperses in five days. That was done on Monday, July 13.

In its compromise form, the law states simply that Torah learning is a national value. It does not explicitly elevate religious study to be on a par with military service, as the haredim insisted on until the bitter end.

This is just one of many reasons that the haredim are so widely despised in Israel today. And if the majority of Israelis have their way, there will be no haredi involvement in any coalition going forward, unless they agree to serve in the IDF.

In the clip below, an IDF veteran shouts in Goldknopf’s face. He points to Einav Danino, the mother of murdered hostage, Ori Danino. He was a career IDF officer who was also held hostage by Hamas, before being murdered in a tunnel on August 30, 2024. “Do you know who that is? Her son was murdered in captivity. He was religious.”

Things were very heated in the Committee room. And Goldknopf just sat there. Saying little. (There are no subtitles. You don’t need them. I provided examples above as to what is being said. The clip is here so you can see the fury directed at the haredi lawmakers. Note that the security staff to not step in to hold them back. That tells you a lot.)

The vets are demanding that they be the priority of the nation. Them and serving soldiers. Too many have been wounded, and suffer from PTSD. And there is nowhere near adequate funding allocated to physical and mental health support for them. They let Goldknopf have it.

Among the most gut-wrenching moments before this committee was the appearance of Einav Danino. When she began to speak faintly, Danino seemed so vulnerable. MKs in the room were talking to one another and checking their phones. An IDF veteran sitting beside her exploded. (The same gentleman shown in the short clip, above.)

He hammered the MKs for several minutes. They were shocked into silence, the Committee members.

Einav Danino began again, quietly but not timid. She rebuked the Committee members for their shameful treatment of psychologically wounded veterans who had risked their lives for the country. To protect all Israelis - including the haredim. Who risked their lives to bring her son home. In a body bag.

“Why do you treat them so badly?”

“Do you not see them? Are they invisible?”

A few days before Einav Danino’s appearance at Committee, Goldknopf had the temerity to lecture MK Meirav Cohen of the moderate Yesh Atid party on national values, saying that even founding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion valued religious scholarship deeply. He exempted 400 haredi students from military service when the state was founded, Goldknopf said, because he saw their study it as being of equal importance to army service.

In response, Cohen blasted Goldknopf, telling him to spare her his revisionist history. Ben Gurion, as is a well-established historical fact, allowed the exemption in order to ensure that the anti-Zionist haredim remained quiet and did not go to the United Nations to tell the world that they opposed the creation of a Jewish state.

It was a Faustian bargain that Ben Gurion felt he had to make in order to receive UN support for the establishment of the State of Israel. But he was also certain that the few hundred young haredi men opting out of service would become a fleeting phenomenon.

Goldknopf has the chutzpah to state (at the beginning of this clip) that he is certain that the draft dodgers to which MK Cohen refers are in Tel Aviv. (Pointing fingers at the decadent, left-wing, secular Tel Aviv population is a favorite “go to” attack tactic of the haredim.)

Pay attention to Goldknopf’s face and body language when MK Cohen yells at him. He seems genuinely shocked. They swagger and. have done so for decades; the haredi tail wagging the dog. But what they do not seem to understand is that in the last three years something very profound has changed. They have pushed too far and overshot the mark. Their arrogance is leading this nation to the brink, and perhaps over. Civil war? Many Israelis fear that possibility may come to pass.

The next clip shows the raucous Knesset session on Tuesday, when a Bill freezing the arrests of haredi men became law. You can see Prime Minister Netanyahu enter the chamber. The Opposition MKs stand and shout “shame” while pointing at Netanyahu. His visage is frozen. Checks his phone. He looks straight ahead, barely interacting with the two men he sits between; Minister of Justice Yariv Levin (the driver of the judicial reform legislation) and Minister of Defence, Israel Katz.

The perp walk. At about the 1:45 mark of the clip below, Bibi rises (while speaking on his phone) to leave the chamber. He endured the requisite humiliation like a champ. As he leaves the Knesset chamber the Opposition group continues to heckle him, changing their chant to “lech!” (Meaning “go” in Hebrew. As in - “get out of here, Bibi.”

It is difficult to process that in the State of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has presided over a colossal betrayal of Israel’s core, founding ideals. Service. A national bond that supersedes all else. Safety. Security. Loyalty to the state and its people. Not a corrupt partisan “bloc.”

The gravity of the moment is reflected on Netanyahu’s face. A portrait of moral depravity.

If he has any hope of forming another government, he must have the support of the haredim. Benjamin Netanyahu needs them to retain power.

On Tuesday, Bibi forsook everything that matters. Loyalty. Security. Integrity. He sold out the IDF, the fathers and husbands and sons who serve, so that he may - at age 76 - remain in the top office. He has put the ability of the IDF to defend Israel in peril. The betrayal is complete.

This is not just another crazy day in Israel. This is a turning point.

At a press conference in the Knesset shortly after the vote, MK Avigdor Lieberman - a former political ally of Netanyahu’s - was clear. He is politely saying that we are on the verge of civil war.

Lieberman in the clip below: If we don’t end the draft dodging it will end us. We must understand this. Draft dodging has hurt our foundational values, in terms of our national resilience and also security.

Election Date. Finally.

On Sunday, the government decided that the election will be held on the last day that is legally possible. October 27.

Until late spring, the smart money was on Netanyahu doing everything possible to avoid going to the polls in October. A cursed month in Israel.

Since October 7, the prime minister has been obsessed with rehabilitating his legacy. He sees himself as a great leader in the arc of history, one who (as he has reminded us many times) will liberate the people of Iran, remake the map of the Middle East, and in his world, all will be forgiven.

Two years ago, a long-time senior aide to Bibi told me that the prime minister was very focused on managing the impossible - so that October 7 would be eclipsed by his greatness. As was explained to me at the time, if he stepped down or called an early election (based on prevailing circumstances then) then October 7 would be his eternal legacy. He could not abide that. So – the thinking among his close aides was that if they succeeded in creating a “safety zone” in Lebanon to keep Hezballah at bay, defeated Hamas and saw normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia – this would erase the dark, indelible stain of October 7.

None of those three achievements has been accomplished. The “trifecta” is how his advisers referred to their three-legged stool. Get the job one and his greatness in the historical arc would be restored. Of course, that has not happened – yet. Should the trifecta be pulled off in the next three months, well, then, perhaps Bibi will yank yet another rabbit out of the hat.

Or not.

(We will soon drop a podcast, which was recorded on Monday with Yaakov Katz, in which we discuss the many miracles that could come to pass in Bibi’s favor between now and October 27. We have all come to understand, over time, that the man may be infallible.

In the meantime, I offer you this election visual which popped up on social media within an hour or so of the date being set.

The photograph shown was taken when the coalition government was sworn in early in January, 2023. Most cabinet members are present. Netanyahu sits in the front alongside President Isaac Herzog.

“Put the date in your calendar,” the visual reads. “27.10.”

Just above the photo it it states: “We are changing (more like throwing out in this charged context) the Government of the Massacre (as October 7 is often called in Israel).

And note the date. How 7.10 is in red, to emphasize that we are still there. We are stuck in and on October 7, 2023. It is exactly this kind of association that had led Bibi’s aide to say to me – two years ago – that an October election would be avoided. At all costs.

And, here we are.

IDF Chief of Staff Warns That the Army is on the Verge of Collapse

Also on Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir wrote a letter to Netanyahu telling him – yet again – that if passed, the law exempting the haredim from service will cause the military to collapse. Reservists who have served hundreds of days in the last three years received fresh call up notices for the next calendar year - on the day that the haredim rammed through the law that exempts them from service.

Israel’s Exposed Flank. The Border with Jordan.

We learned several days ago of an unfolding crisis along the porous border between Jordan and Israel. It is wide open. In parts there is a simple chain link fence.

Residents of communities who run the local security squads told a news reporter that there are near-constant intercepted incidents along the border. People attempting to infiltrate Israel. Weapon drops - often by drone. These serious security events are constant.

One man said that he had taught his wife to use an automatic weapon. “I’m not going out to defend my community and leave my wife and kids at home undefended,” he said. “It’s not a question of ‘if’ but when it happens.” (The “it” is an October 7 style attack.)

And when that happens, so many Israelis ask, what will Netanyahu say? “They didn’t tell me? I didn’t know?” (That has been his stance since October 7. “Nobody told me about security concerns along the border with Gaza.”)

IDF Chief of Staff Zamir has put his concerns about how Netanyahu is degrading the army’s capability to fulfill its mandate in writing. On multiple occasions. And he is doing so in order to pre-emptively remove the possibility of Bibi asserting any future claim of plausible deniability.

“I am waving ten red flags”, IDF Chief Zamir said to the Security Cabinet in early April. “The IDF cannot sustain the demands placed upon it if we do not have an immediate infusion of more soldiers.”

At the time they were short 20,000. Today, the deficit is greater. And this in the context of a continuing multi-front war, as well as the planned construction of dozens of new West Bank settlements. Each one, as Zamir has warned, repeatedly, requires IDF security.

Netanyahu is leading this country over the precipice. Eyes wide open. In broad daylight.

October 27 cannot come soon enough.

P.S. Throughout Wednesday the haredi extortion blitz continued in the Knesset. They have a knife to Bibi’s throat and are beginning to pierce the skin. In spite of their agreement to support various laws of importance to Netanyahu and his Likud party (after they first passed the Shirker’s law), the haredim are not honoring their commitment….unless….

They are demanding tens of millions of shekels to provide day care for haredi families. This, of course, is while the IDF is being destroyed.

Not only will the army collapse in on itself but so will many households unable to be squeezed so unconscionably.

The plot thickens.

Sara Netanyahu (Bibi’s wife) was reported in the last two days to be demanding that she and her two sons be granted lifetime security details at the state’s expense. Just in case her husband does not come out on top following the next election. This is the stuff of dictatorships. Not Israeli democracy. The Netanyahu sons do not even reside in Israel, never mind serve. (Thath is something that everyone here knows but does not raise in public.) Who would have the authority to approve this “request”?

David Zini. Head of Shabak.

Also this week, Bnei Brak, a Tel Aviv-adjacent city that is 99% haredi, passed municipal legislation approving that several streets be gender segregated. Yup. You read that correctly. And they indicated that this is just the beginning.

As I have remarked many times in the last year or so, in a decade, Israel could well become a grindingly poor, theofascist nation. And Iran? Tehran may be the new Tel Aviv. It is not at all a fanciful possibility.

Meanwhile, the haredi parties have two more days to extort additional “concessions” from Netanyahu. I shudder. We all do.

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Editor’s Note: To our many American subscribers, Happy 4^th of July. 250 is a big number. And America remains the hope and beacon of the western world. Here’s to another 250.

Initially, I had intended to publish this note on Thursday, the 1,000^th day since October 7. Then, on Wednesday evening - when I saw the range of events planned to commemorate 10/7 throughout Israel - I decided to wait.

And then, my back went out. I was briefly out of commission, sidelined by that excruciating pain that I’m sure many of you have experienced. A shot of cortisone and some other stuff have revived me somewhat. (Please. Don’t send me notes about the perils of cortisone shots. I know.)

Fun fact about Israel: physicians do not prescribe strong pain medication here. It’s just not done. Even for minor surgeries. Over the counter medicines – the equivalent of Tylenol – are kept behind the pharmacist’s counter. We have many problems in this country, but rampant opioid addiction is not among them.

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Thursday, July 2 marked 1,000 days since October 7.

For 1,000 days, Israel has been embroiled in war upon war within war after war.

At the outset, the war was expected to last no more than three months. At least, that’s what political and military leadership signaled. And that relatively quick time frame was consistent with Israel’s historical management of armed conflict: quick, full throttle, decisive. We are a small country in size and population. For so many reasons we cannot sustain years-long, unrelenting armed conflict. A low attrition-like simmer? Yes. But the last three years have been too close to a raging boil for too much of the time.

From the outset, operational execution of the war with Hamas was a mess. Basic supplies were scarce. Reserve troops were not battle ready. The generals had very little understanding of the enemy and its operational capabilities, never mind intelligence to support ground ops.

The degree of negligence at every level of leadership – security, military and political – was shocking. The army and government disappeared one thousand days ago.

“Where is the IDF?” everyone asked on that day.

“Where was the IDF?”, we still ask.

1,002 days ago (I write this on Saturday), no one would have thought it possible that the same political leadership would be in power three years on. That we would still be waiting for a State Commission of Inquiry to begin its work. To take stock. Assess facts. Begin to process and analyze the scope of the failure of all critical institutions – intelligence, security, military and governmental.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated repeatedly that there is no need for a State Commission of Inquiry. He maintains that it would be controlled by the leftist, elitist “deep state” interests that permeate the judiciary and pundit classes. Or so he contends. They will be motivated to assign all responsibility and blame to him, he says, for political revenge. He has also consistently refused to accept responsibility for October 7.

The week leading up to Day 1,000 began inauspiciously.

The days leading up to 1,000 have been fraught and tense.

Bibi makes light of the unthinkable

On Sunday June 28, Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared on The Patriots, a popular political TV talk show on Channel 14 – a station which is owned by a Bibi loyalist, and makes no pretense of even trying to be remotely – forget neutral – accurate?

Bibi is asked how he changed as a result of October 7. “Well,” he says, smiling, “I lost weight.”

His response is incomprehensible.

People in the live audience are quiet. Even among the hardcore Likudniks there is disbelief. Did we hear him correctly?

He is making light of his weight loss in the wake of October 7. This is like making Holocaust jokes in 1946. There is nothing – absolutely nothing – funny about October 7.

The Bibi clip went viral.

As you might imagine, there was quite a backlash in mainstream media and on social platforms in Israel. Below is a particularly striking video collage – from a media channel that caters to the Tik Tok/Insta crowd; teens, 20 and 30-somethings. This response also went viral. They nailed it. The photos that are on the screen when dark music plays are of murdered hostages, soldiers and others. The collage closes with Bibi praising himself for having brought home all the hostages, a line he has been repeating - a lot - in the last few weeks. And then he asks the audience - “no applause? “ Clapping follows. (English subtitles by Maya Naftolin.)

Bezalel Smotrich picks up where Bibi left off

Also on Sunday, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich appeared on a different talk show. He boasted about how fiercely he had fought since October 7 to bring home the hostages. All of them. From day one. We did it, he said, because of me. Because of me.

His comments are outright lies. Throughout the hostage crisis, Smotrich and Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, voted against every single proposed deal that might return the hostages. Every. Single. One.

Smotrich was with Bibi in the “Total Victory” camp. He was and remains determined, furthermore, to occupy the entire Gaza Strip and re-establish Jewish settlements there. That has been his priority since October 7. For him to even attempt to be the hero who fought to bring home the hostages is grotesque.

Here is what Gil Dickmann had to say in response. Gil’s cousin, Carmel Gat, was held hostage until she was murdered with a bullet to the head at point blank range in the tunnels on August 30, 2024, along with five others. Carmel’s mother was murdered outside her home on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. Her sister-in-law was also kidnapped by Hamas. (She was released in November 2023.) Gil Dickmann and his sister, Shay, campaigned relentlessly for Carmel and all the hostages until the very last one was home. He continues his fierce and effective activism today to hold the government accountable. Here is a transcript of the video of Dickmann’s post to Smotrich. The link to the Instagram post follows:

Smotrich: I think all the hostages are here because of me.

Dickmann: Every word of that sentence is a lie.

Smotrich: Because all the hostages are here.

Dickmann: Not all the hostages are here. Because Carmel and Alex and Almog and Eden and Ori and Hersh and another 40 hostages were murdered in captivity and it doesnt matter how hard your try to erase that…..

Smotrich: I think that all the hostages are here because of me.

Dickmann: And forsure not because of you. You. Who said that you’d prefer to sacrifice 133 hostages. You. Who said that the hostages are not the most important thing. You were determined to continue the war and sacrifice them. To their deaths. And now you have the chutzpah (nerve) to say that because of your efforts they are here.

Smotrich: People are trying to turn me into someone with no heart….

Dickmann: You do not just lack a heart - you are actually the minister who sacrificed the hostages.

And for the sake of completeness, here’s a very similar clip that Dickmann made and directed at Bibi. It’s very similar to his message to Smotrich. In addition, Dickmann says: “It doesn’t matter how many times you repeat the lie - you know it’s not true. You did not bring back all of them. And it was your responsibility to bring them home alive. And this will follow/dog you until your last day.”

Here’s the clip:

In the final days leading up to 1,000, the senior political leadership in Israel seemed to be testing some trial balloons - to see just how far they could peddle their lies and rewrite history. Well, it did not go well for them.

On Monday, following his Sunday radio appearance, Smotrich spoke at a gathering in the Gaza border area. Unbeknownst to him. Eyal Eshel, the father of Roni Eshel z”l, planned to ambush him. Roni was murdered by Hamas while on duty at the IDF Nahal Oz base on October 7, a brave warrior to the end. We have written about Roni here and here. (Both pieces feature interviews with Eyal Eshel from March, 2023. The second piece includes audio clips of Roni’s final desperate radio pleas for armed IDF backup as she watched Hamas terrorists breach the border fence and begin their attack on the Nahal Oz base.)

Eyal has been a tenacious advocate for a State Commission of Inquiry. He is fearless, courageous and righteous. When you lose a child in such an incomprehensible “event”, and the government has been so hard-hearted and cruel, there is nothing left to fear.

Here he is, going at Smotrich on Monday. We decided to summarize his remarks rather than add subtitles. You don’t really need a play-by-play to get the point. (Smotrich had scheduled three whistle stops in the Gaza envelope area that day and two kibbutzim told him to stay away after his repugnant comments the day before. Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha did not rescind their invitation for him to speak. This video clip is from that kibbutz.) There are many clips of Eyal Eshel from different angles on that day but this one captures most of his comments and also shows Smotrich.

As soon as Smotrich begins to speak, Eyal Eshel hammers him. Verbally. He lashes out. (I am including here a compilation from different clips I have seen…..no single one caught it all.)

Eyal Eshel

“Bezalel. Come down from the stage. You have no right to be here. It is not appropriate for you to be here. You are coming here for a PR stunt. You should have resigned on that Saturday morning. (October 7, 2023.) Why didn’t you do that? Why didn’t you resign?”

Smotrich attempts to continue his planned remarks, saying that he came to thank the people of the region that was attacked. He says that he loves the people there.

Eshel shouts back. Smotrich continues to say that he understands their anger.

Smotrich says that he protects them. Respects them. Eshel shouts back. “You didn’t protect Roni. She burned (to death) in the war room (of Nahal Oz). You did not protect her and you do not love me at all.”

At one point, a man comes to hug Eyal in an attempt, it seems, to quiet him. It is Doron Almog. He is currently the head of the Jewish Agency and is no stranger to tragedy. In October 2003, five members of the extended Almog family were murdered in a suicide bombing at a beachside restaurant near Haifa. On October 7, two more family members were murdered. Four – a mother and three children (who had just seen their father and sister murdered in their home) – were taken and held hostage by Hamas.

This is the reality of Israel. Everywhere.

Eyal Eshel never backs down. He will never be silenced. Ever. He has become the voice of millions of Israelis whose disgust with the coalition government is total.

After several minutes of Eyal Eshel blasting him, Smotrich left the stage.

Hell hath no fury like a proud nation scorned and deceived; like the father of a young, unarmed, female soldier who was utterly forsaken by the IDF and political leadership.

The Draft Dodging Ultra-Orthodox

That the anti-Zionist, ultra-orthodox “haredi” political parties wield enormous power in this coalition government is next level madness.

All they care about is that a law be passed enshrining religious study as being “equal” to military service. Currently, there are 100,000 haredi men of draft age who shirk their legal duty. They simply refuse to show up when summoned for service by the IDF. On top of that, they demand and receive generous financial support from the state to study full-time. They believe that it is their right not to work. Their families are large, with ten to 12 children being quite common.

The haredim have earned the deep loathing of most Israelis.

They have the audacity to declare that their study of religion reflects a degree of righteousness that trumps all other values. They send others to battle, saying that it is their devotion to prayer and religious study that saves Israel, not our guns and air force.

Not only is that poppycock, but their “version” of Judaism is a welfare-system that has become entrenched in Israel and really is the outcome of crude vote-buying.

Haredim living outside of Israel work. Many orthodox Jews living in Israel work and serve in the IDF. The haredi boondoggle is deeply corrupt and corrupting. Morally and financially.

In early April, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told a cabinet meeting that he was “waving ten red flags”, saying that the ongoing demands placed on the IDF are excessive and unsustainable. There is today an urgent need for 20,000 soldiers. So, you might ask – what is the solution? Enforce the draft regarding haredi dodgers?

Nope.

The coalition government has directed the IDF to extend the service of conscripts due to be released imminently by two to three months. And to extend the already insane reserve duty requirements for tens of thousands of others.

Put aside the negligent management of this country’s security for years leading up to October 7 and in the three years since, the political echelon just barrels ahead and decides to move forward on the least rational and just option. They have decided to place a greater burden on those who serve and reward the haredi shirkers with yet another “get out of jail free” card.

Next we show one of many clips from various Knesset committees that convened during the last week. Minister of Housing and leader of the haredi United Torah Judaism party, Yitzhak Goldknopf, is berated by Sharon Nir of the Yisrael Beitenu party (led by Avigdor Lieberman). This is one of numerous scenes of intensifying rage and frequency as election season approaches. Sharon Nir is referring to a law that the haredim are working hard to ram through the Knesset before it ends this session, the last one of this government. The law? It elevates religious study to the level of army service. It purports to exempt haredi men from any form of national service. It is putrid.

On Friday evening, I was speaking with an Israeli political leader in the mix for the coming election and I remarked, with exasperation, “Are they on drugs?”

“Precisely,” said my friend. “They have become addicted to this ever-growing state support, and they sense that it’s about to end. And they are panicked.”

The mood in Israel is bleak. Fatigue runs deep. People are worn out and numb. The coalition government that has been in power for close to four years is seen by the majority of Israelis to be destructive. Corrupt. Beholden to extreme interests controlled by a minority of the population.

Israelis also understand that they are in an existential fight to salvage the nation. The greatest threat to this country is from within.

The Eve of Day 1000

Wednesday July 1, night, Sha’ar HaNegev Municipality

Regrettably, I was unable to be present for these remarks made by my dear friend and extraordinarily talented journalist, Amir Tibon, on Wednesday night in the Sha’ar HaNegev district. Officially still day 999. (And we did not have ample time to translate it to English. But it is still interesting to watch a bit and quite a few of our followers understand Hebrew.) `It gives you a sense of the grassroots activity. Scenes like this were all over Israel.

In his remarks, Amir acknowledges the melancholy that characterizes the national mood. We still await proper answers. Most movingly, I thought, was how eloquently he reminded us that one year ago at this time we persevered through the punishing summer heat and humidity to remind Prime Minister Netanyahu and the coalition government that there were 48 hostages remaining in captivity with monsters in Gaza. And he said, with certainty, that had we not demonstrated that they may never have come home, alive or dead. Tibon implored those present and beyond to rediscover and channel the resolve from last summer into the coming election period, to work hard to ensure that we elect a government that is worthy of the Israeli people.

DAY 1000

Hostage Square, Tel Aviv, Thursday July 2

State of Tel Aviv and Beyond editorial assistant and social media maven, Maya Naftolin, was at Hostage Square for several hours on Thursday. It was hot. Intense. Somewhat surreal.

Here, you see a woman holding a sign stating, “love thy neighbor.” The biblical phrase was also hurled at Minister Goldknopf in the clip we posted, above. It has become a shorthand way of asking those who shirk their responsibilities to the state: On what basis do you decide that you are better than others? That you may determine who serves and who does not?

Walking behind her is Eitan Horn, who was held hostage by Hamas for 738 days. He was released along with the remaining 19 living hostages on October 13, 2025.

From morning to night on Thursday there were events, gatherings, exhibits, speeches. And many of those who had been freed, their loved ones, walk among us all.

In a building on the edge of the square there was a special exhibition of items that belonged to hostages and Hamas murder victims. We share a sampling here.

Below is a photograph of Roni Eshel, Eyal Eshel’s daughter. Roni’s military beret (in the glass case) was retrieved by the IDF from a private apartment in the Gaza Strip long after October 7, along with other personal belongings that had been taken by Hamas terrorists. The beret was returned to Roni’s family in the blue box, also on display at Beit Ariela.

Arbel Yehoud lived on Kibbutz Nir Oz with her partner, Ariel Cunio. As they were violently kidnapped from their home, they were separated. Arbel was held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and released after 482 days in captivity on January 30, 2025. Almost one year after her release Arbel spoke of the daily abuse and sexual violence she suffered in a televised interview. She had been held captive in the home of a “family”, headed by a man who lived with his several wives and children. Below is a photograph of the “Certificate of Release” given to Arbel by PIJ (on the right).

The next photo shows a Hamas “certificate” of release with a framed poster celebrating the terrorist group’s war and cause. These “souvenirs” were given to Ariel Cunio when he was released in that still hard-to-believe “deal” brokered by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. On October 13, 2025, Ariel Cunio saw his older brother, David, for the first time. The brothers were held separately and throughout their captivity had no idea if the other was alive until shortly before their release. David’s wife, Sharon, and identical twin three-year-old daughters were also held by Hamas until late November, 2023. The family had been together in the tunnels until then. As they were separated, David wept and said to Sharon: “I’m scared to death.”

The beautiful orange haired boys, four-year-old Ariel Bibas and his little brother, Kfir, 9 months when brutally kidnapped on 10/7, have become tragic icons of the horror and its aftermath. They were murdered in captivity, along with their mother, Shiri. Their father, Yarden, survived 484 days in captivity and was released on February 1, 2025. His pain is inconceivable, a modern-day Job. Below. Ariel’s bicycle.

On Day 1,000, throughout Israel people gathered and voiced their sorrow and anger. Many held signs aloft that read “No Faith”, reflecting a despair that is deep and wide. They are referring to the IDF. The Shin Bet. The Prime Minister. The government. It is mind-boggling that we face the same issues today as we did 1,000 days ago. That PM Netanyahu still clings to power with the most unseemly and destructive political allies. People have lost faith in leadership.

The Mood in Israel

For 1,000 days, Prime Minister Netanyahu has refused to accept any responsibility, personally, for the disaster that transpired on his watch. Instead, he assigns blame to others. And he may well be right in doing so. That is for a State Commission of Inquiry to sort out. But it is not honorable to point fingers when you run and ran the show. The proverbial buck stops with the top guy. And that has been Benjamin Netanyahu for all but two years since 2009.

He has refused to constitute a State Commission of Inquiry into October 7. Such a body would be appointed by the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court and comprised of a range of competent individuals, including lay people. The Commission would have the power to compel witnesses to appear and testify. It would have the power to subpoena documents and all relevant information and data. And it would then issue a report to the public, explaining what, exactly happened. And what did not.

There have been many State Commissions of Inquiry in Israel’s history, the most famous, perhaps, being the Agranat Commission, which lay the blame for Israel’s lack of preparedness for the 1973 war on military and intelligence leadership. The Commission’s findings were much less severe in its findings regarding then Prime Minister Golda Meir. Nonetheless, as the person at the top of the food chain, Golda quite rightly decided that she must take responsibility, ultimately.

Golda Meir resigned from her position as prime minister on April 11, 1974.

No one would have believed that 1,000 days later, Benjamin Netanyahu would remain prime minister, leading the most extreme government in Israel’s history; that he would continue to resist the creation of a State Commission of Inquiry; that this government would have survived for four years – a first in Israeli history; that Israel would still be in a state of war; and that one of the main issues in the election would be whether 15% of the population of Israel should be given a blanket exemption from service in the IDF.

60% of Israelis want Netanyahu to go home.

A majority want a State Commission of Inquiry.

Just under 70% of Israelis support drafting ultra-orthodox men to IDF service. We do not have the luxury of doing otherwise. And yet, in these final days of this coalition government they are obsessed with ramming through the Knesset a law that will recognize full-time religious study as being equivalent to IDF service. In other words, if you study then you are contributing equally to the state as a soldier. Sheer madness.

Israelis feel that this election is their last chance to save and restore honor and dignity to their country. Elderly people who have survived all the wars, who fought for independence in 1948, say that the future of Israel is at stake. They have seen everything. But this? The supreme arrogance of this destructive and extreme coalition?

Unprecedented. Inconceivable.

We can only hope that the electorate decides well.

As always, we end on an upbeat note.

I absolutely love this post of John Ondrasik’s (of “Five for Fighting” fame). He has been a stalwart voice of morality and support for the hostages since October 7. State of Tel Aviv interviewed him when he was in Israel - and performed in Hostage Square the night of the first Iran attack on Israel: Saturday April 13, 2024. Ondrasik did not flinch.

He developed a special bond with the family of Alon Ohel, a wildly talented musician who was held by Hamas until October 13, 2025. Today, they performed for American troops in their 4th of July celebrations aboard the USS Nimitz.

How crazy cool is this??!?!?

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The Israeli election must be held by October 27, latest, and Dr. Einat Wilf, former MK and prominent public presence (not sure what to call her - politician? Advocate? Public intellectual? All of the above?) is emerging as a strong voice in the mix of candidates vying for Israeli votes. Her newly constituted party - Oz - advocates a return to the fundamental principles of political Zionism, or, as she puts it - “from exilic mindset to sovereign conduct.” Einat was raised in a very progressive, left-leaning environment. I would not suggest for a moment that she has veered rightward. I happen to find the “right-left” paradigm obsolete these days but especially so when it comes to Israel. Those often tagged as being “right” are anything but. They have morphed into extremists of different types. What we have in Israel today is a large left/centrist/center right majority that is looking for a way to ensure that the extremist coalition that we have lived with for four years is not re-elected. Einat Wilf and the Oz party are solidly in that majority mix. We talk about her party’s fierce dedication to the founding principles of the state of Israel; a pluralistic, liberal democracy. And she makes no apologies for standing firm.

As I mention in the podcast introduction, I first met Einat Wilf when I began my tenure as Canadian Ambassador to Israel in winter, 2014. She has continued to embody the best of Israel. Proud. Strong. Knowledgeable and courageous. We need people with Einat’s integrity and intelligence in the mix in the Knesset…….and, frankly, we need women in positions of leadership in Israel. In the last decade we have slipped terribly in that regard. Not only is the political sphere male-dominated, but they tend to be repressively so - towards women. That’s my view. Do not attribute it to Einat - although I expect she would agree.

We begin this podcast with the horrifying attacks recently on US Congressional candidate Scott Wiener. Why? Because the harassment of him is exactly what Oz is all about. Reclaiming our dignity and nationhood.

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Podcast Notes

1. Link to five minute animation video recently released by Einat Wilf explaining the history and political concept of Zionism.

2. Website for Einat Wilf’s Oz Party - in English (also Hebrew, if you prefer - just toggle in the menu at the top of the page. https://www.ozparty.co.il/en

Dr. Einat Wilf is Chair of Oz Party and a leading thinker on Israel, Zionism, foreign policy and education. She was a member of the Israeli Parliament from 2010 to 2013, where she served as Chair of the Education Committee and Member of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Born and raised in Israel, Dr. Wilf served as an Intelligence Officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Foreign Policy Advisor to Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres and a strategic consultant with McKinsey & Company. Dr. Wilf has a BA from Harvard, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. She was the Goldman Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. Dr. Wilf is the author of seven books that explore key issues in Israeli society. “We Should All Be Zionists”, published in 2022, brings together her essays from the past four years on Israel, Zionism and the path to peace; the co-authored “The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace”, was published in 2020.

Our star return guest, FDD Senior Fellow, Jonathan Conricus, has just returned to Israel from a three-week speaking tour in Canada. And he has a lot to say. About many things. We focus in this podcast on the continued volatility in the Middle East, with the MoU negotiations between Iran and America in Switzerland overshadowing everything. As President Trump “joked” when assigning VP Vance to the thankless task, if he is successful (however that is measured) then Trump will take credit… and if he fails, well, he’ll get the blame. The MoU parameters seem to have been slapped together in quite a hurry, more in order to push oil prices down and allow a happy celebration of the 250th 4th of July, a truly momentous occasion. But the spectacle of America denigrating its most reliable ally in the the Middle East (and possibly the world) - Israel - while presenting Islamist, terror supporting governments - notably Pakistan and Qatar - as the “reasonable” players, should give everyone pause. Trump even went so far as to speak of Hamas as being “good guys” and the new/not new Iranian regime as being “very reasonable.” Conricus and I discuss the optics and the facts and I don’t want to spoil the ending but neither one of us is overly optimistic regarding the outcome of these negotiations.

He also shares his view of what’s going on in Canada, these days a country with a very pro-Islamist and deeply antisemitic and anti-Israel government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney. Conricus returned quite disheartened by what he saw and heard while in Canada. Now he understands much more intimately that I’m not exaggerating when I report, with great sadness and reluctance, on the radical transformation of my home and native land. (I’m sure those words - taken from the version of the national anthem I grew up on - have been replaced by some unintelligible DEI version. Too bad.)

We’ve included some really fantastic video segments in this podcast - going back to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis. Remember those daily broadcasts by the extreme students holding American diplomats hostage? Well, we’ve got that and much more: Hezballah attack tunnels in southern Lebanon; J.D. Vance slamming Israel; and more.

Podcast Notes

Full video of a speech delivered on Monday, June 22 in Jerusalem by U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee

My recent op-ed in the National Post addressing Canadian PM Mark Carney’s failure to address rampant antisemitism.

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Jonathan Conricus is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. He served in the IDF for 24 years, four of them as spokesman during the intense 11 days of the Guardian of the Walls Operation between Israel and Hamas. Now a reserve officer with the rank of Lt. Col., he is a sought-after speaker internationally and is frequently seen on major television news shows. Jonathan was born in Jerusalem to a Swedish father and an Israeli mother and spent his formative years in Sweden.

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Editor’s Note: I see no reason to re-invent the wheel and add my two cents to the tsunami of analysis generated in the last ten days or so. Instead, I encourage you to watch the first 40 minutes of this episode of Iran International, hosted and produced by my good friend, Canadian journalist, Negar Mojtahedi. In the first 22 minutes, Negar speaks with a former senior U.S. diplomat to break down and set out the “terms” of this very nebulous Memorandum of Understanding between the Islamic Republic of Iran and America. Her second guest is Gazelle Sharmahd, a Los Angeles-based American woman who is a prominent activist on behalf of the Iranian people. Her father, long a resident of the United States, was kidnapped by Iranian agents while in Dubai in 2020. He was imprisoned, tortured and murdered in captivity in October, 2024. Gazelle’s insight into the despair of the Iranian people – in and outside the country – is moving and deep. You will learn a great deal from watching this episode. It tells you everything you need to know, in my opinion, to draw your own conclusions about the merit of this chaotic, undisciplined approach to diplomacy. In the early days of Trump 2 I thought it was by design and seemed to be effective. Now? I believe that it is the consequence of volatile, undisciplined thought processes, analysis and behavior. On the part of the President. And those around him seem to little, if any, influence.

I have included at the end of this dispatch links to a few written pieces that are important to read in order to understand the Israeli reaction to this crazy time.

That’s what I am focusing on here, in State of Tel Aviv and Beyond.

Now, to The Wrap…..

I’m sure that all of you, like me, have cognitive whiplash. We have been reading, listening, watching, without pause, trying to make sense of it all.

Everything. Is. Crazy.

But this clip - from Israel’s Channel 12 marquee news talk show on Saturday night - is perhaps the best metaphor I can find to capture the madness. First, I will provide context.

Benny Gantz, a former IDF Chief of Staff, head of the now sputtering Blue and White political party, was invited to the show to discuss, well, politics. He is tall, blue-eyed, and considered to be a “salt of the earth” Israeli. The best of the best. The son of Holocaust survivors, Benny served the state as a career army professional. He will never light the world on fire with charisma and oratory, but he is widely regarded as being a good man, which in this country is a great compliment. As IDF Chief of Staff he was competent. Not a superstar but he did the job.

Benny entered political life in 2018 and since then he has has had highs and lows. In the clip below the two hosts – Ben Caspit and Amit Segal – are giving him the gears over the upcoming elections. Benny is mild-mannered. Measured. Some might describe him as being dull. Others would say he’s unflappable.

But when Ben Caspit asked him whether he would agree to sit in a government with Benjamin Netanyahu - should it come to that – Benny lost it.

I was tidying up the kitchen when watching this on Saturday evening. And I stopped. I was shocked.

Ben Caspit is a highly regarded and seasoned journalist in print and broadcast journalism. I consider him to be solidly centrist. Netanyahu would castigate him as a leftist elitist. He is smart and thoughtful and always strikes me as being well prepared, respectful and he knows his stuff.

Amit Segal is very different from Ben and you can see it clearly in this clip. He is the outlier on Channel 12; aggressively pro Bibi. (Netanyahu and his supporters tend to denigrate Channel 12 as being leftist propaganda but I disagree. It is centre/centre left. Channel 13 – centre/centre right. Channel 14 – owned by a Bibi supporter is unhinged pro Bibi.)

Amit is a partisan, hard-core right winger. Not once can I recall him uttering a critical word of Bibi or his Likud associates. Respectfully, that takes some serious discipline.

It is widely known in Israel that his father, Hagai Segal, was one of a group of Jewish terrorists who planted bombs in the cars of five West Bank mayors in 1980. Three explosives were detonated before the targets were blown up. Two bombs exploded and caused serious injury to the mayors of Ramallah and Nablus. Hagai Segal served two years of a three-year sentence for these crimes.

In the last year or two, Amit has been promoted by a small coterie of American shakers and movers, billed in the U.S. as being among the most highly regarded political analyst in Israel. American Jewish media and institutions tend to reflect a center right sensibility, overall. Amit is a big name in political journalism in Israel, to be sure. In recent years his star has fallen somewhat because of his unabashed shilling for PM Netanyahu and his crew. And in this clip – it is all on full display.

Benny Gantz is asked by Ben Caspit if he will agree to sit in a government with Bibi should that be an outcome of the coming elections. Benny (pardon my French) loses his shi*t. Watch this short clip – with English subtitles added.

Translation and subtitles: Maya Naftolin

People are dying in northern communities. Their lives are sheer hell. A never-ending October 7. Hezballah hammers them day and night. They aim rockets at school buses. SCHOOL BUSES. Forget about Trump. And ffs, Benny is saying….”AT A TIME LIKE THIS YOU ASK ME IF I WILL SIT WITH BIBI?!?!?”

What is wrong with you?

Ben Caspit takes his smackdown professionally. Unflinchingly. And let’s Benny rip.

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But Amit Segal? He leans forward. And as Benny is thundering that it is time for Bibi to go home and adds that he will sit with a nationalist government that puts Israel’s interests first, Segal pipes up: “With Bibi, too.” Two seconds later, after Benny says we need all points on the political spectrum represented in the next government, Amit pipes up, again: “Correct.”

Read the room, Amit. Not now.

Amit Segal has an encyclopedic brain that seems to work as quickly as his mouth. Ratatat speed (hey – it’s a legit word in NYT Spelling Bee……so I can use it here…“ratatat.” Who knew?). But there was only one way for a professional newsman to conduct himself in that moment. And that was not it.

I’m with Benny. Can we please stop making this about Bibi? We are truly in a very drawn-out existential moment……greatly exacerbated by the conduct of Bibi. It is time for him to do the right thing and go home, exactly as Benny says. His legacy is and always will be October 7. Now it will also include the degradation of Israel’s deterrent capability as well as its relationship with America. Bibi has had more than enough time to work his magic. This country needs a refresh. Code red. And all that Amit Segal can do in that moment is pop up and say: “With Bibi,too.”

Sidebar: Later this week we will drop a podcast with Einat Wilf, former MK and the founder of a new political party, Oz, in which she explains why she is entering the fray in this way. One of her fundamentals is that 80% of Israelis are focused on the “who” in the election. Just like Ben Caspit and Amit Segal. Einat is targeting the 20% who she says are focused on the “what.” People who are focused on the substance. Coming soon….

I have been asked endlessly – since President Trump did what he seems to have done – what I make of it all. (In fairness, no one is clear as to exactly what Trump did – including Himself). I did not rush into the swirl of “hot takes” in the last week. There is an overload of analysis and speculation. And to be honest, I was numb for a few days. As, I believe, were most Israelis. Simply frozen.

So today I will get into a topic that is not discussed much outside of Israel. Our reality.

It never ends. We are living in a cycle of madness. A true Catch-22. No one is accountable. Noone seems to be thinking. Bibi appoints puppets to key security and intelligence roles. And when things swirl down the drain – as has transpired in the last week or two – he disappears. Just as he did on October 7. It took him five hours to address the nation on that dark day and declare that we were at war. Five hours. What the heck was he doing? We know that he had been aware of the massive invasion and ongoing slaughter for five hours at that point. And yet he sat in the secure pit in IDF HQ and said nothing.

That is not leadership.

Then he spent the next five days negotiating with extremists in his coalition to ensure that they’d support his war effort. His priority was to appease the extremist thug, Itamar Ben Gvir, so that he would not bolt the coalition and bring down the government. That dilemma occupied five days of Netanyahu’s attention. Power uber alles.

And now? After this MoU debacle?

Netanyahu made one brief statement in the days following the announcement of the MoU. In Hebrew (so the English language media would not show clips). This was for his domestic audience only. You can watch it here. (There are English subtitles.)

Since then, the prime minister chose to appear once - yesterday, in fact - at a conference organized by Jewish News Syndicate, a hard-right American-controlled media outlet that hews closely and loyally to Netanyahu’s positions. He spoke in English this time, emphasizing that Israel would act as necessary to proetect its interests and that no MoU would tie its hands in that regard. That was for American consumption.

Meanwhile, Israel is convulsing in despair, pain, and rage.

In addition to Israel’s international and the botched relations with America – Israel is a certifiable domestic disaster. And this deep dysfunction is a direct result of divisive policies promoted by the coalition government.

The ultra-orthodox - haredim as they are called in Israel - refuse to serve in the IDF. In recent months, the IDF Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, warned Netanyahu and the entire cabinet that the army cannot continue to perform as it must due to a crippling shortage of conscripts. More than 100,000 ultra-orthodox men are of draft age. The army urgently needs 12,000 soldiers. Minimum.

Instead of serving, they have taken to blocking roads to create chaos, and are stoked by their leadership to continue doing so. The haredim demand that the rest of the country should put their lives on the line - literally - and support them financially. Rather than donning uniforms and wielding weapons, they pray. And they tell the rest of Israel that it is their prayer that is our salvation. Not the army. All day long, they pray and learn. They have exceedingly large families that are raised in poverty and the cycle of dependency and ecosystem of power is self sustaining.

It is madness. Zamir warned recently: “I am waving ten red flags. The IDF will collapse in upon itself.”

Encouraged by their political and rabbinical leaders, thousands of young haredi men have been making a daily habit of blocking roads and engaging in violent acts demonstrating their opposition to the draft. Last week they vandalized the home of an Israeli Supreme Court judge who lives in a settlement in the West Bank. He is clearly right wing. His responsibility, also, is to work to ensure that Israeli law is upheld. Clearly, the haredim are furious that this judge interprets the law (correctly) to support the arrest of haredi draft dodgers.

His home was smeared with paint and windows were shattered, etc. Four haredi men were arrested in connection with that mafia-like intimidation event.

Earlier today, a gang of haredi thugs clashed violently with IDF soldiers who were preventing them from breaking into a military prison where haredi draft dodgers are being held.

Here’s a clip from the mayhem. No translation is necessary. This conduct is encouraged by MKs representing 15% of the population:

And here’s another clip from June 12 - at a haredi wedding. The reporter writes in an X post:

The mainstream in the Haredi sector - is becoming increasingly extreme. Last night at the wedding of Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch's grandson, the rabbi was filmed dancing to the tune of the song "Foiled Is Your Plan" in response to the attempt to draft young Haredim into the IDF. Our revered leader, in an exceptional manner, rose from his place to dance when the young men began to sing ‘Foiled Is Your Plan’ in light of the wicked war against the world of Torah.

The accompanying visual:

Last week was brutal.

As Israel reckoned with America’s about-face, dreadful tragedies unfolded. On June 19 in southern Lebanon, four young IDF soldiers were blown up in their tank by Hezballah. Shortly after that, on the night of June 19-20, Nir Ben Ari fell in battle just nine days before his 22nd birthday. A warrior with an elite combat unit, Ben Ari was not even supposed to be there. He was on the “holiday” that all soldiers get when the finish their service but before they are officially discharged. Ben Ari was at home and felt compelled to be with his team to support them. And he wanted to say goodbye before he flew off to Thailand for an extended vacation, a rite of passage of so many young Israelis when they finish their compulsory military service.

Nir Ben Ari was laid to rest yesterday. Sunday, June 21. As were the four other IDF soldiers who died on June 19.

On the day that five bereaved families buried their young sons, Minister of Housing and leader of the United Torah Judaism MK faction, Yitzhak Goldknopf, decided to make a “visit” to the military prison where haredi men are being held. They were arrested for refusing to report for duty once they were called up for IDF service. And Minister Goldknopf felt that today, when Israel buried five of its best, was a good day to pop into the prison to buck up the draft dodgers.

His cabinet colleague, Aryeh Deri, does this frequently as well.

Talk about incitement. Pouring salt on open wounds.

This. Is the reality of Israel today.

And this clip, below, shows Minister Goldknopf being feted by celebratory music and greeted worshipfully by so many young haredi men as he makes his way to the prison.

And then…..there are the miscreants and rogues in Israeli society and sitting in cabinet who say monstrous things. And the world notices. In one recent exchange, former PM Naftali Bennett took to X to tell celebrity talk show host Piers Morgan not to pay any attention to extremist nuts like Itamar Ben Gvir. They don’t really have power.

To which Morgan quite rightly responded by reminding Bennett that these men saying awful things are senior cabinet ministers. (And I pretty much never agree wtih Morgan.) He sure has a point. Naftali Bennett and many leaders tell us constantly that these extremists are just a “fringe” of Israeli society. But that is not true. We know that at least 10% of the electorate supports Itamar Ben Gvir, according to polls. That ain’t no fringe in this political system. That is real power.

If you wish to check out the online exchange on X between Bennett and Morgan you can do so here:

But this is the gist. Morgan is told to ignore Ben Gvir, and he quite rightly asks, “How can I? He’s a senior minister in the Israeli cabinet?”

To which Bennett responds, in part:

As for Ben Gvir: you’re citing the wrong person.
I already told you he’s a clown. A noisy and incompetent clown.

I would never have let him into my government, nor should Bibi have.
Soon we’ll be replacing this miserable government.
Ben Gvir insisted on rebranding himself as “National Security Minister” because he liked the dramatic title.
In reality, he oversees the police. He doesn’t command the IDF, doesn’t formulate military strategy, and doesn’t make operational decisions in Lebanon.

Quoting Ben Gvir to explain Israeli military policy is like quoting a loud backbencher to explain Britain’s war strategy.

Israel’s actions are determined by its government and carried out by the IDF in accordance with international law.

Except that Bennett is incorrect. Ben Gvir is not a backbencher. He is the Minister of National Security. His conduct is shameful and he should be shut down by the Prime Minister. Piers Morgan is absolutely correct.

Much as Bennett would like to say that Ben Gvir is irrelevant that simply is not true. He is a powerful minister overseeing a powerful portfolio and has been given free rein for three years by PM Netanyahu to wreak havoc domestically and abroad. He is a thug

In recent days we learned that the former Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef, stated that the American “deal” with Iran is God’s punishment for the state’s arrest of ultra-orthodox draft dodgers. For good measure, he refers to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara – a senior public servant who supports enforcement of the law (which, as it stands, requires all men from age 18 to serve in the IDF) as “garbage.” A “wicked woman.”

There’s more. Shas leader, MK Aryeh Deri (also haredi and a twice convicted felon who has served hard time on corruption-related offences) recently boasted that he is proud of his grandsons for refusing to serve in the IDF. His comments ignited a storm of outrage. Here is Oded Ben Ami, one of my favorite Israeli newscasters in his opening segment recently. Like Benny Gantz, Oded is not known for his excitable manner.

The X post translated states: Aren't you ashamed, Deri? Are you proud of your grandsons who break the law? How do you sleep at night knowing that you sent soldiers to fight and you keep your grandsons at home?

Here’s the clip from Channel 12. (Sorry that we don’t have subtitles but we just can’t keep up.):

Oded Ben Ami asks Deri directly: “Are you not ashamed?….Minister Deri….this is not moral…..”

PM Netanyahu? Silent.

This - the Israel we live in today - does not have a functioning government. This is not even benign neglect. It is full-blown self-destruction.

Ask yourself this. If you had a draft-age son or daughter – would you trust the government and IDF with the life of your child? This is a conversation that Israeli families are having. Not just left-wing anarchists. People of all socio-economic, political and religious backgrounds. There is a tipping point for every society – including Israel. We may have already passed it. We may be approaching it. But the Israeli people – which give so much and ask for relatively little in return from their national institutions – are perilously close to breakdown.

I asked some good friends of mine recently exactly the question I propose above. They have a son who is magnificent. Tall. Handsome. Brilliant. Accomplished and, most importantly, a lovely person. And so deeply patriotic. He aspires to serve at the highest level possible when he is drafted; in the most demanding units. This family is the best of Israel.

And I asked these parents, my friends: If your son was draft age today, do you have confidence in the IDF? In the government? Would you trust him to their judgement?

This impossible question is one that every Israeli family faces and has lived with since 1948. If the Jewish people have learned one thing in the last 2,500 years it is that only we can and will and must defend ourselves. The choice proves to be too much for some, and they leave Israel. Whatever their reasons no one is in a position to judge. Especially those who live abroad and those who shirk service while living here.

My friends’ pained faces said everything. But, still, they answered. They looked for a moment at one another, then back at me.

“No.”

No. They would not trust their son to the army.

Let that sink in.

And, yes. They have a Plan “B”, as do most Jews these days; those living in the diaspora and in Israel. If, where and when they will go, should they decide to leave Israel. Everyone is holding their breath for the election. But if this same coalition of extremists - or a variation thereon - becomes our government, again, I am certain that the fallout will be dramatic.

I am not being alarmist or fear mongering. It is reality in Israel today.

Last Thursday night I was at a desert concert and rave in the middle of nowhere. It is an event venue. Beyond cool. Approximately 2,000 people were there, aged 20s to 70s. The headline act was Berry Sacharoff – an Israeli rock legend. And we were all in character. Out for a night of fun. We can do this.

In the middle of Sacharoff’s set my friend noticed a drone in the sky. Everyone did. My first thought? Where are the paragliders? I am certain that everyone thought the same thing. Then. You tell yourself. No way. They couldn’t get this far into Israel without being detected. And then you remember. Oh. Wait. This already happened. And then you wonder, for a moment, if the drone is an attack drone. But you see the blinking lights. It’s the concert promoter’s drone. The blinking lights are green. Of all colors in the spectrum. Green. Hamas green.

And my friend says nothing but raises his arms and looks skyward.

“What the fu*k do you want from us?” Three times. He yells.

He and his family survived October 7 in a border kibbutz.

There really is no self-pity. We are just depleted. On the drive home, all we spoke about was the drone, and all the thoughts and fears that it evoked and triggered.

I am working on a longer piece looking at the mayhem of the moment in Israel. But I’m not rushing into the swirl of opinion. There is nothing fresh left to say. What is clear is that America is no longer a serious country when it comes to diplomacy and geoplitics. Decision making is undisciplined and uninformed.

This piece that ran in a hard right newspaper is one of the best pieces I’ve come across.

Read Article

Earlier today, I interviewed our regular guest and superb commentator, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus , also a senior fellow with FDD. He has just returned from a west to east speaking tour through Canada, a place about which I know a thing or two. We will focus, of course, on this Iran mess but will leave time at the end to discuss his observations from Canada as well.

Our other regular guest, Yaakov Katz, has gone away for a few weeks for a well-deserved family holiday. Road trip in a part of the world I know well…..and served as pro bono travel consultant. (I wear so many hats.) We’ll hear from him again sometime in July,

As always, I finish off with something well – not totally gloomy. Here’s a taste of the concert last Thursday in the desert. Benny Sacharoff had just invited the lead singer and guitarist from one of the warmup acts to join him and his entourage on stage. That’s kind of like being anointed by royalty. The lead vocalist of the band Lola Marsh - Yael Shoshana - is wildly talented and I love that they chose to do one of my favorite songs of all time. Wicked Game by Chris Isaak. I recorded the first bit on my phone. It moves into a Hebrew medley from here. Just after 20 seconds there are a few seconds with just Yael and Benny in the frame.

Israelis live large. In the moment. They party. Hard. And they put on great shows. Man. We so needed to pretend for a night that we didn’t have a care in the world. Because here, it is not a cliche to ask: “Who knows what the next moment will bring?”

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After very intense days of build-up, when President Trump spoke openly about his anger at his one-time pal, Benjamin Netanyahu, we learned on Sunday night - the President’s 80th birthday - that Iran and America had agreed to end the war.

Come again? Which war?

On Monday, the President, Vice-President and Iranian Foreign Minister Aragchi signed a “Memorandum of Understanding”. Electronically. Diplomacy by docu-sign. We are told that it takes care of all outstanding business and acrimony. Most importantly, Trump gloated, gas prices dropped immediately and the Strait of Hormuz was open to commercial shipping traffic. Who knew it was all so easily resolved?

On today’s podcast I get into the ugly underbelly of this “deal” - or what we think we know about it - with two of the top analysts in this business: Andrew Fox and Negar Mojtahedi. Their bios are below. The discussion is fantastic.

Show your support for STLV at buymeacoffee.com/stateoftelaviv

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Podcast Notes

Must-read essay published on Monday, June 15, by Andrew Fox. “Anatomy of a Debacle.”

Andrew Fox

Anatomy of a debacle

This piece has been weeks in the writing, awaiting a conclusion. Now we have it, this long article is an autopsy of the calamity we have watched unfold for the last few months. As with all my writing on the Iran War, I will keep this free. All I ask is that you share and subscribe if you do not already…

Read more

a month ago · 179 likes · 30 comments · Andrew Fox

Andrew Fox is a former British Army Major and frontline conflict researcher specialising in modern warfare. A former senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he is now a senior associate fellow at several international think tanks and a regular media commentator on global conflicts.

He writes the Fox on War Substack and co-hosts The Brink podcast, bringing field reporting and strategic analysis from conflicts including Gaza and Ukraine.

Negar Mojtahedi is a journalist with Iran International and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. She is based in Vancouver, B.C.

Follow Negar on X @NegarMojtahedi / Instagram @negarmojtahedi

Editor’s Note: The Wrap is going to be less tied to each week going forward and published when it seems appropriate. In general I will be moving towards publishing more written pieces. Subscribers have made that request repeatedly and it seems like the podcast market is becoming very crowded. It’s curious how consumer preferences change constantly in this wacky digital era. I do my best to keep up…..:)

Since October 7, I have found it quicker to produce podcasts. I am not and never did aspire to be a “news” outlet but these last few years have forced a very tight cycle of relevance on those of us trying to offer meaningful comment on Israel and the region. Even if you are commenting or analyzing, the reality on the ground is so rapidly changing that whatever you produce or write can be and is often outdated the next day.

Things in these parts aren’t exactly settled, but I am going to make a strong effort to strike more of a balance between written and audio-visual content. If you have requests or comments you’d like to share, please send them directly to me: vivian@stateoftelaviv.com

In this dispatch there are random photographs of roses. They were taken on my recent visit to Queen Mary’s Rose Garden in London’s Regent’s Park. I had the good fortune to be in the city in early June, which is when the roses are in peak form and bloom. I’m not a big flower person but….it seemed wrong not to go. The garden was beautiful but the ongoing unseasonal heat wave had taken a toll on the blossoms. They were looking parched and wilted, but still well worth the visit.

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A Time-Out From Israel

Our original plan was to take a short holiday over Passover, which fell early this year. My daughter and I were ravenous for culture - in English. We needed a “time out” from more than two years of war and the accompanying stress levels. And so, we decided that a week in London was just the ticket.

President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Iranian regime had other plans.

Several days before our scheduled departure, the Israeli government decided that while El Al - the larger of the only two airlines servicing Israel - would continue to fly, it would be on a very limited basis. Peculiarly limited. (Arkia is the smaller, second airline still flying to and from Israel at the moment.)

The routes to be serviced by El Al were reduced, as were the number of outgoing passengers (50) permitted to board each departing flight. Incoming aircraft, however, could be full to the gills. The stated rationale for this limitation was that it took more time to process passengers leaving Israel. Even if this is true, what the government is saying is that the lives of 50 passengers (plus airport support staff) may be risked but that is acceptable. I would have thought that a responsible public policy decision in these circumstances would be all or nothing. But, alas, no one consulted with me…….

What this also meant was that someone had to do the culling. Make the lists.

So - who were the fortunate 50? On what basis were they selected? Passover is a major travel period for Israelis, when about 15% of the country’s 10 million residents go abroad. Many families had planned and paid for holidays.

A few days before our scheduled flight at the end of March I received a notice from El Al confirming the bad news I had been expecting. I corresponded briefly with an acquaintance who sits high up in the C-suite at El Al who informed me that the 50 were selected on the basis of airline status and medical/humanitarian issues.

Weird. Cuz no one contacted me to inquire about the reason for my trip. It is unclear how they determined that I was not traveling for medical or other exceptional reasons.

I reached out to El Al media relations (a bit of an oxymoron) and was told that they were not speaking to anyone. Well, with the exception of the daily walkabout with major Israeli TV stations who were fed canned lines and video to broadcast.

No, no, I told the media boss lady. I would like to discuss the basis on which the lists are assembled.

She didn’t even nibble.

But here is what I can report. I have more than a few friends and acquaintances who travel constantly and, as a result, enjoy top tier status on El Al. During this delicate period two of my pals were booked on flights and their reservations were honored. They also reported - anecdotally - that there seemed to be a very large number of ultra-orthodox families with young children among the 50 special people on their flights. One of my friends even chatted up his fellow travelers. These particular folks were from abroad and spending a few years studying full-time in a religious institution in Israel. They were unaware of what status or privilege had pushed them to the top of the traveling class.

So my friend conjectured and it bears repeating. One phone call from an ultra-orthodox power broker to a person in a position to influence things would fix that snag in no time. In plain language, the likelihood is that the very influential ultra-orthodox/haredi political. machine found a way to ensure that their people were taken care of and able to fly to enjoy the holiday with their families abroad.

Prove me wrong. I invited El Al to do so and they declined.

These “little things” have become a pervasive part of life in Israel, particularly in recent years.

On Wednesday May 27, I finally flew with my daughter to London, where we spent one week. Renewed war nearly scuttled these plans as well.

It was a little touch and go in the week preceding our departure.

Would the war with Iran resume? Would Trump go in and “finish the job”, as he had been insinuating he might? And if that should transpire, would we make it to London? (Never mind the return.)

Yes. I was that self-absorbed. It happens after almost three years of solid wars and more than a few false starts. It takes a toll.

Our first day and night in London were magical. We stayed in an Airbnb in a lovely neighborhood in the north end of the city. A wonderful book store was steps from our temporary home. Everything, of course, was in English. So intelligently curated. Damn the Kindle! We bought heaps of books. The weather was perfect. Sunny and warm. In London. Good food. And no one spoke about war. No one was in uniform. No one mentioned how many young men fell in battle that day. No one talked about reserve duty or Jewish terrorists. Itamar Ben Gvir. Bibi Netanyahu. There were no street riots by ultra-orthodox men protesting the draft.

On the surface, it all seemed so – normal.

I know that London and the UK are a whole other level of madness, but for a moment, we enjoyed the illusion.

London and the Lido

I love London.

In ’84-’85 I did a post-grad degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which remains one of the high points of my life. In that year I learned more about intellectual rigor than in the other seven other years of post-secondary education I endured. Language and precision of expression were valued at the LSE. Intellectual curiosity was encouraged. And the emphasis was on quality of thought and argument, not quantity of pages read between lectures and seminars.

Sidebar: As an aside, among the superb plays I saw that week was We Had a World, by American playwright Josh Harman. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s in a small playhouse - Hampstead Theatre - and everything about it is just outstanding. The protagonist - based on real Josh - takes us from his life at age 5 to the present - mid 30s. It is an unsparing and touching study of the quirky dynamics that prevail in many families but with a decidedly Jewish flavor.

During his undergrad years, Josh moans at one point that he is expected to read a new Charles Dickens novel every week. That experience is one I share - the Dickens-o-rama. In my third year of studying English literature for my BA, I took a Dickens and a Shakespeare course - among three others. Each week we were required to get through a new novel in the Dickens canon as well as a Shakespeare play. I wasn’t the Cliff notes type. I did the heavy lifting. It was brutal. There were similarly outrageous assignments in my political science courses. The emphasis in higher learning in North America, in my experience, was on quantity over quality.

Contrastingly, at the LSE we would select one article to read from a long list each week. We were to show up in class prepared to analyze and defend - or attack - the thesis. In other words, we were expected to think and not just slog and regurgitate.

I studied at the LSE in 1984-85, the earlier Thatcher years. The coal miner’s strike was in full force. This battle was determinative of Thatcher’s remaking of Great Britain in ways previously thought unimaginable. Breaking the NUM - National Union of Mineers - the royalty, in many ways, of the UK industrial ecosystem - was a challenge that could only be undertaken – and won – by a green grocer’s daughter.

I lived in North London that year (very close to where we stayed on this trip - around the corner, in fact) and one of my roomies was a pal from Toronto, who remains a great friend to this day. Both swimmers, we would trudge several times each week, early, to do our laps at the Swiss Cottage pool. It was filthy. For real. We still have nightmares of swimming through clumps of hair and floating bandages. But we did it, because there really were no options in those days. These were the early days of fitness as a way of life, everywhere, and the UK was a touch behind in terms of facilities.

The striking coal miners were permanently installed outside Swiss Cottage tube station, as they were in many parts of London. Scruffy blokes, holding buckets, chanting incessantly: “Support the miners.” It was more of a demand than a polite request. The miners were fighting for their lives and livelihood and they were intimidating.

They were subsisting without wages, in what they perceived to be an honorable fight for independence and dignity. The “scabs” who continued to work in the mines were subjected to extreme violence and social ostracization. The NUM strike tore the UK apart.

On more than one occasion, I stopped to chat with the miners. I truly wanted to understand, from their perspective, the basis for advocating to keep unprofitable mines operational. At that time, coal was evil. A nasty pollutant being replaced by cleaner types of energy. This was the golden era of natural gas and nuclear. The market for coal was disappearing, rapidly. The miners with whom I spoke didn’t care about practicalities. They saw their vocation as a core part of the British way of life and national identity. If the mines were unprofitable, so be it. To shut down mines would end a way of life that had persisted for generations. It really was that straightforward for them.

Arthur Scargill, the leader of the NUM was a committed communist, or socialist, depending on how one defines such terms (as well as the phase of his life.) He led the NUM in what is widely regarded as the most significant industrial action in post-war Britain. Living through the reality of this strike - which was felt everywhere in the UK - was intense. I include this short video if you are interested in learning about this critical moment in modern UK history - or refreshing your memory. It is sympathetic to the miners but also very faithful to the facts.

OK. Back to the daily routine in London, ‘84-85.

After the swim, my buddy and I would then head to the LSE for study and fun in the City. Dinners were often a huge plate of chicken, peas and mashed potatoes, slathered in gravy. At Frank’s on Neal Street. Today it is a groovy shopping street. Not then. Gentrification was a word that did not yet roll off tongues. Franco – as we called him - welcomed us warmly several evenings each week. Two pounds and fifty cents. It was our only proper meal of the day. We’d manage until then – even post swim - with a biscuit and fresh fruit.

Satiated and tired, we’d amble from Frank’s to Trafalgar Square, catch our bus home and sit on the upper deck. We’d smoke one cigarette – it was allowed in those days. (Heck, people even smoked on the Tube!) Just one. It was a bit naughty and decadent. And fun and stupid. We were happy.

I just wish we’d known about the Parliament Hill Lido, which I “discovered” on this recent trip to London. (“Lido” is a term used in Europe to refer to an outdoor pool or beach area used for recreation.)

It’s a 60 meter outdoor unheated pool (so English – why not suffer a little if you can) open year-round. A stone’s throw from the famous swimming ponds on Hampstead Heath.

Damn straight I checked it out - on the afternoon of Friday May 29, in the midst of a heat-wave gripping London. That outing told me a lot about London today.

I took the bus from Belsize Park (where I stayed for part of this trip) to the Lido. At some point an invisible line is crossed, from upper middle-class north London to rough welfare neighborhoods on the other side of the heath.

Parliament Hill Lido (which is nowhere near the House of Parliament) is a community pool that was built in 1938. Of course, I wrote to my swimming buddy, dismayed: “How did we not know this existed?!?!?”

The pool was nice. In the middle was a large swimmer’s lane. I took a few moments to figure out how things are done. Each pool has its own particular “etiquette.” This one was brilliant. Like being on a multi-lane road. Slower swimmers stayed close to the rope. There was plenty of room for others to pass in either direction. Worked swimmingly, I must say.

I finished my laps just before the 1:30 pm break when the pool shuts for an hour and a half. A woman near me asked the lifeguard in heavily accented English (East European) about the schedule. She explained that mornings were the best time to come. In the afternoon – especially when hot – it’s full of teenagers and quite unruly, she said.

“Oh.” I said. “That bad?”

She gave me a “look.” Not unfriendly, but one that was loaded with meaning that I wasn’t quite sure of.

“It’s full of teenagers,” she added. “You don’t want to be around.”

“Aren’t they in school in the afternoon?”

“Today is the final day of their school break. But even still, the kids around here don’t go to school if it’s a hot sunny day. They cut class and come here.”

Hmmm.

I dried off and left. Outside the Lido a long lineup was already forming; people who wanted to be sure to get in for an afternoon dip. It was women covered in layers of cloth. Head to toe. They were each accompanying multiple children. All ages. I walked towards the line and eavesdropped. The older kids were speaking east-London accented English, laced with profanity. I’m betting the mothers did not understand what they were saying. All boys. I assumed that their young daughters were elsewhere, likely on account of not being allowed to appear in public in a bathing suit. It was mothers accompanying sons. Some older boys. The picture below is of the end of a line that was already long. About 100 people long - an hour and a half before the pool re-opened.

Upon seeing the line for the afternoon shift, the coded language used by the lifeguard about avoiding afternoons at the pool became clear.

This is typical of a recurring experience I had in London, Strasbourg and Germany. Discussions about sensitive topics - like the influx of Muslim immigrants and their impact on society - are conducted in code.

Strolling through central London one day, I walked past a large truck. The doors were open and inside was an officer busy at work with masses of equipment. There were about a dozen police officers standing around close to the van. I spoke at length with one. They are a roving unit of the Metropolitan Police working on the Live Facial Recognition project. It’s a relatively new program that has moved into full swing in recent months.

The big truck contains equipment that maps the face of every single individual walking by. Within seconds the image is run through their system, which contains facial images of 12,000 individuals believed to be in the London area and wanted for various alleged crimes. The numbers of wanted individuals nationally is many times larger.

While we chatted – and the officer explained the work to me – a beeper notification sounded and about six officers converged immediately on a man who had just passed us by seconds earlier. He was detained. That day alone, in the previous five hours, the officer I spoke with said eight or nine individuals had been similarly detained.

Even if someone passes by masked – and with sunglasses – their face can be mapped with 35-45% accuracy. Once the coverings are removed, of course, a more reliable identification is possible. As the officer said to me: “Things have become pretty bad here in the last three years. This program is helping a lot.”

There you go. He said so much without tripping any DEI wires.

As it happened, later that evening - May 28 - a clip from CCTV cameras in London last November went viral. It showed Dame Helen Mirren, the brilliant actress who also happens to be a vocal supporter of Israel, being accosted while walking with her husband in London.

This ugly episode reminded me of the hatred that is everywhere, it seems. The nice part of being in a new environment is that it’s not as obvious. Then again, London police have been doing their jobs of late. It is not an accident that throughout my week there I did not see a single kheffiyeh. Not a single sign vilifying Jews or Israel. None of the standard symbols of hate that were everywhere in this city for too long.

Truth be told, I had expected to encounter more incidents of overt hostility like that which had been directed at Helen Mirren. I do not wear outward signs marking me as a Jew or someone who lives in Israel. I blend in easily. Still, I stayed in an area with a significant Jewish population. I was in the vicinity of Westminster on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, when there are often pro Palestine and Hamas demonstrations. And I did not see a single protest, protester, a placard, nothing.

But here’s a post-script to the Helen Mirren incident. The resurfacing of that video generated a lot of buzz on social media. And Helen Mirren, speaking to the media earlier this week at a film festival in Sicily (where she received a lifetime achievement award) chose to address the Big Issue.

Mirren has long had a strong attachment to Israel, having visited for the first time shortly after the 1967 war. She has always understood that reality in Israel is complex, but was moved by history and what she experienced first-hand to support the state. You can read the full report on her interview here, but I will highlight some key bits.

“Evil forces are rising everywhere, even in a country like Israel,” she said. “How could you possibly repeat the actions of what was done to you as people to other people?” she added, presumably referring to the Holocaust and the current war in Gaza.

“The artistic community in Israel, the intellectual community in Israel, are so remarkable. I was born at the end of the Second World War, I grew up in Europe post Second World War and the realization in my parents’ generation of what had happened in the Holocaust was so profound, so important. Therefore, the creation of Israel was a very important moment, although maybe it was done in completely the wrong way, in the wrong place, I don’t know. But something had to happen after the horror.”

These observations are disturbing. Very disturbing. Especially so because they are spoken by a staunch friend of Israel and the Jewish people.

Dame Helen makes some strong insinuations in her comments with which I vehemently disagree. I have many profound misgivings with respect to how this never-ending war has been and is being conducted. But Israel has not committed genocide. Full stop. There is much to criticize and object to, fiercely, but the tendency to exaggerate and misstate has seeped into the comments of even Helen Mirren. Rather than being critical of her it behooves all among us who care about this country - and its soul - to pay careful attention to the shift in her views and tone. (And if you. missed my podcast the other day with Andrew Fox, when we discussed a very concerning Pew Poll about attitudes globally towards Israel, you may wish to listen here.

Dame Helen is correct in pointing out the very dangerous shift in Israeli political and social life. Under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has transformed into an extremist nation promoting policies that the majority of Israelis oppose. Strongly. Yes, it’s complicated. And not. When ultra-orthodox anti-Zionists and thugs like Itamar Ben Gvir are the most powerful elements in society, well, things have gone very wrong. And they have. If we do not collectively address this careening reality, we may lose…..more than we have already.

Near the end of my one-week London sojourn I meet up with a friend for morning coffee. He’s a local. Born, raised, with a family of his own. Jewish. Zionist.

“What’s it like here?” (Translation: What’s it like being Jewish and living here?)

I am flitting about in tourist mode. I don’t see and experience real life.

My friend likens his life to that of a frog in a boiling pot, an overused but effective comparison. When things boil over he will likely leave but therein lies the question. When is it time? You know, time to leave?

What really struck me was how different the environment is in London and the UK than, say, the US or Canada.

“We are around 200,000 here in a population of 60 million,” my friend points out. “The focus here is less on Jews and more on the Islamization of British society, generally. Do we have British values? What are they? How do we preserve them? Do we preserve them?”

This is a very different focus from what North American society seems to fixate on. Jews.

In the U.S., of course, there are approximately 6-million Jewish Americans. They are well-established and prominent; some say that their success is way out of whack compared to their proportion of the population. We all know that line of reasoning and where it leads.

Canada has a Jewish community of approximately 375,000 in a population of approximately 43-44-million. (In the last decade, the population of Canada has ballooned from 35-million, primarily as a consequence of the Trudeau and Carney governments “open door” policies towards “migrants.” These days, the federal government is unable (or unwilling) to provide accurate numbers regarding population, legal immigrants, migrants, anything. Fact.)

In Canada and the US the focus is on Jews. Jews and their disproportionate power. Jews and their nefarious, subversive controls over society. Islamists (pro Hamas types) and “progressives” focus their hatred on Jews and Israel. They have succeeded in making the public “discussion” about Jews. Israel. And how evil they are.

In the UK the concern is primarily driven by the massive numbers of Muslim immigrants and the impact they are having on society, broadly. Yes, they are virulently hostile to Jews and Israel in the UK. And there, too, their views converge with the hardcore haters of the “progressive” left.

But there are different issues grabbing popular attention in the UK. In recent years, for example, the existence of grooming gangs – comprised primarily of men from Pakistan and India – has become known and is now openly discussed. Law enforcement and other institutional interests seem to have suppressed the dissemination of information about these groups – which targeted young British girls for brutal rape and sexual assault. This has been going on for decades.

And then there’s the case of Henry Nowak, which also blew up while I was in town.

Henry Nowak was an 18-year-old university student stabbed to death last December by 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh man carrying a ceremonial dagger as well as a second large knife, which was used to stab Nowak multiple times. To read a decent chronology of events of the case, I suggest reading the article, below.

Henry Nowak case: What happened and why has it caused national outrage?

Read Article

On Monday June 1, while I was in London. Digwa was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum time to be served of 21 years. But what set off riots and rage in the UK that week was what happened as Henry lay dying.

Digwa’s defence was that Nowak had provoked the stabbing by uttering a racial insult. Whether or not that is true, when the police showed up and saw Nowak lying on the ground, bleeding profusely and complaining that he had difficulty breathing – multiple times – they decided to handcuff Nowak. And they watched him die. Law enforcement, it seems, has been so totally brainwashed by DEI gobbledygook drilled into them by their official training, that they were more concerned about a possible racial slur than a dying man.

As Henry Nowak’s father stated after the verdict - his son had been treated by police in a manner that was “inhumane and degrading.”

“Henry did not die with dignity,” he said, further noting on the courthouse steps that the contrast between how Henry and Digwa were treated was “unbearable.”

This heartbreaking case dominated public discourse while I was in London and received international coverage. How had society come to such a point, so many asked, that an alleged racial slur - and not the ebbing life of a young teen - was the dominant concern of the police?

Strasbourg and Berlin

I write this on the train to Berlin following a lovely three-day visit to Strasbourg, home of the European Parliament, gateway to the Alsace-Lorraine/Black Forest region, and a jewel of a city.

Sentimentality drew me to this place. More than a few decades ago, I had planned to study for one year in Strasbourg, focusing on improving my French and German. Kehl, Germany is a hop away across the river. Paris did not appeal to me, even though I was accepted at the Sorbonne. I was looking for something offbeat. Strasbourg checked my boxes.

I ended up studying that year at the LSE. I remained curious about the city I had set my heart on and never visited. And so, I went. (Short video below of the grand, central cathedral.)

Greater Strasbourg is home to approximately 1 million people. Within the city boundaries it’s closer to 300,000. Surprisingly, there is a large Jewish community, around 16-20,000, with roots going back to medieval times. There is a much larger Muslim community, with guesstimates pegging it at 15-20% of the one million inhabitants. The French government does not collect statistics according to religion or ethnicity – officially – so precise figures are unknown.

At the Friday farmer’s market in the center of town, I stocked up on fresh berries and fruit. The young man selling the produce responded to my less-than-smooth French in Canadian accented English. Turns out he’s from the Toronto area. A strapping fellow, 6’5”, he married a local woman and helps out his in-laws now and then on market day. In spite of presenting physically as being more Nordic warrior, he is Jewish. That came out in conversation, as we were catching up on events of the past week in Canada. And Prime Minister Carney. And Jews. And he seemed so well-informed. Engaged.

“Are you Jewish?”

It never fails us, that ability to find one another in the unlikeliest of places.

His mother is Jewish. His father is gentile. He identifies as being Jewish and was keen to speak about the whole Jewish thing. Members of his extended French family, he told me, are cautioning him to keep quiet about that. No one needs to know. He is uncomfortable, not wanting to comply but uneasy about the suggestion – that he should, you know, hide. Conceal who he is. The Strasbourg Jewish community, he tells me, is very strong and cohesive. But he is also hearing that many are planning to leave. To go where is unclear.

Sidebar: There are 16-20,000 members of the Strasbourg Jewish community, which dates back hundreds of years. We know that because a local priest chronicled the arrest of the 2,000 Jews living in Strasbourg on February 13, 1349. It was the height of the bubonic plague (Black plague) in Europe and Jews were a convenient scapegoat across the continent. The disease that is believed to have resulted in the deaths of 40-70% of the population of Europe was attributed to the dark arts practiced by the Jews. In Strasbourg, as elsewhere in Europe, it was alleged that they had poisoned the wells.

And so, on Saturday February 14, 1349, the Jews were taken to their cemetery and forced to stand on a specially built wooden platform. Those accepting baptism were spared. Many young children were snatched from their parents and forcibly baptized. Most - it is estimated that 2,000 people - were burned alive; a spectacle undertaken and watched by the townspeople.

During the Holocaust, contrastingly, 90% of the community’s Jews reportedly survived. I have no idea how and why this minor miracle transpired but will surely look into it on my next visit.

Strasbourg is one of the prettiest places I’ve ever visited. Locals enjoy a high quality of life. Bicycles are as ubiquitous as in Amsterdam, with wider lanes. As in so many European cities, public transit is accessible and efficient.

Until a few months ago, my Canadian friend told me that there had been regular “Free Palestine” demonstrations, but that has tapered off. Approximately 20% of Strasbourg’s population is Muslim. There are no reliable statistics I came across regarding the “migrant” demographic, which is often a euphemism for “illegal”. However, when I arrived at the train station in the early evening, I decided to walk the half hour to my hotel. The first ten minutes or so were iffy, requiring the running of multiple gauntlets of African men, hanging out in large groups, just watching the world go by. They sat on park benches. Stood around on sidewalks. This ambience soon transitioned to tattoo parlors and low-end booze cans and, eventually, to what one expects to see in a pretty spot like Strasbourg, with its unique Alsatian architecture, a unique blend of French and German styles which, somehow, works. Wrought iron balconies fitted with perfect little flower boxes, café habitues sipping coffee, wine, smartly turned out. Pretty, delicately arched bridges traversing river branches. And the heavy, Germanic structures, built with thick, exposed wooden beams.

Strasbourg is also home to one of the largest mosques in Europe.

The Canadian guy told me that in recent months, German border police have begun to board every train crossing over into Kehl from Strasbourg to check passports. The reasons are obvious.

And indeed, as soon as the train I was traveling in to Berlin arrived in Kehl, two German border police walked through the car, looking carefully at each passenger and checking their documents.

(Trust me. I thought exactly what you are thinking as you read this…..)

Germany is waking up. A touch late, perhaps, but they are not messing around with the Islamist threat any longer.

If you missed my piece on dining out at an Israeli restaurant in Berlin, dropped earlier this week, you can read it here.

Back to Reality?

I am determined to finish up this dispatch and send it out today, Saturday. Indulge me briefly as I try to explain the insanity to which I returned.

My little corner of the western Negev is. tranquil and beautiful, as always. Deceptively so. But Israel is convulsing. Constantly.

In the north. Hezballah continues to pound civilians with rockets. The Lebanese government is incapable or unwilling to take charge. Israel is denounced internationally for “illegally occupying” Lebanon. The fact that we are responding to constant unprovoked attacks is somehow irrelevant.

Iran. There is a deal. There isn’t a deal. Missile strikes. Ceasefire. It is impossible to keep track of the whiplash diplomacy of President Trump. His “junior partner”, Netanyahu, is eviscerated. The two alpha male pals have reportedly had some heated exchanges in recent days and weeks, but we are to be reassured that all is well and they were just carried away with a little verbal roughhousing.

All week long Bibi’s ultra-orthodox, anti-Zionist coalition partners blocked major roads, tying up traffic and life. These men are protesting the arrest of their brethren who have been arrested for draft dodging. This is Bibi Netanyahu’s Israel, a country in which 15% of the population opposes the existence of the state and yet accepts all manner of economic resources, while refusing to participate in defending the country. (I acknowledge here the 3-5% of haredi men who show up to serve each year. A damning statistic.)

Another 10% of Israelis are avowed supporters of Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, an extremist at best, a terrorist at worst. Followers of Ben Gvir and the haredi political parties constitute approximately 25% of Israel’s population of 10-million. This means that 2.5-million of the country’s 8-million Jews are full-on extremists. And that scares the bejeezus out of me and many others.

This is what is at stake in the elections that, by law, must be held before October 27, 2026. I would not be at all surprised if Netanyahu attempts to “postpone” the elections, because of whatever security crisis grips the nation at that time. It is a notion that was unthinkable even a few years ago but is no longer. I have confidence in the prime minister and the gutter advisers who remain loyal to him that they would create an opportunity to attempt such subterfuge, whether legal or not.

The contrast between the comfort and serenity of my immediate surroundings and the extreme chaos swirling around me - and millions of others - is disconcerting, to say the least.

And the positive note on which I will wrap this wrap? Well, dark Jewish humor is the best I can do. But it’s pretty good.

On Thursday evening, there were three big concerts in central Israel and, well, it’s Thursday. The equivalent of Friday in Europe and North America. Everyone is going somewhere.

And so hundreds of ultra-orthodox, anti-Zionist young men decided to block all three major north-south arteries in the country, bringing everything to a halt. As usual, they were protesting the arrest of their draft-dodging friends.

This video of what ensued one one stretch of highway……where people were stuck for hours….captures the best - and worst - of Israel. I mean - where else would this happen?!?!?

State of Tel Aviv and Beyond editorial assistant and social media maven, Maya Naftolin, brought this video to my attention Saturday afternoon and quickly got to work putting in English subtitles. In addition to the English notes it helps to understand two things: 1) Hiriya - which is where these drivers were stuck - is a landfill and recycling plant located in the Tel Aviv area. It’s stinky around there; and 2) “Chaim shelli”……which woman filming says to another sitting in a folding chair…is an overused Hebrew expression meaning, quite literally - my life. But it is a catch-all…..meaning, you’re my everything, the best. You rock my world.

At the beginning of the clip haredi young men are walking between cars and challenging the drivers they are blocking to explain why they want the ultra-orthodox to be drafted into IDF service? The audacity. The shameless sense of entitlement from these men. I have no words.

I also would like someone to please tell me why they are always carrying plastic bags? Why?

We translated what we thought were key bits of the dialogue - the clip is choppy and ends abruptly but is a great snapshot of the gridlock and chaos that is a perfect metaphor for the state of Israel these days.

Just another beautiful corner of Strasbourg I had to share……

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I read an article by Andrew Fox on Tuesday, and understood immediately how important it was. Not his piece (although it’s excellent, as always) as much as what he reports. The highly regarded Pew Foundation conducted a poll in recent months in 36 countries and surveyed a large and diverse demographic. The results are deeply concerning. Even in the United States - where Israel has long been a unifying, bipartisan “issue (although I am well aware that has been eroding for some time now) - the numbers are worse than one would expect. I’m not sure how anyone assesses “victory”, but looking around today I would suggest that the reality on the ground in the region is bleak. Hamas is still standing. Hezbollah is still standing. Iran remains a force to be reckoned with. Is that what “total victory” looks like? There were many people who celebrated October 7 but there were, I believe, still more who understood the barbarism of Hamas for what it was and is. But in the interim, something has changed. The ongoing wars and extreme allegations made against Israel have clearly influenced how people view Israel. Israel has absolutely botched the war for the hearts and minds of the world. And that is reflected in the Pew Poll results, which Andrew Fox and I discuss. It’s a short, pithy exchange about a very grave challenge facing Israel, to which no one seems to be paying careful attention. I know - I keep on delivering such uplifting content… there is a silver lining… but you have to listen to the end.

Below are links to the Pew Poll and summary, Andrew Fox’s article and a third article referred to in our chat by Mr. Fox.

Andrew Fox

Israel’s greatest threat isn’t Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran

With tedious regularity, I am accused of being a paid Israeli shill. It is what people reach for when they do not want to engage with what I have actually said. It is easier to imagine a transaction than an argument, easier to believe there must be a cheque somewhere than to accept that a person might look seriously at Israel, Gaza, Hamas, the West Bank…

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2 months ago · 272 likes · 48 comments · Andrew Fox

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Andrew Fox is a former British Army Major and frontline conflict researcher specialising in modern warfare. A former senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he is now a senior associate fellow at several international think tanks and a regular media commentator on global conflicts.

He writes the Fox on War Substack and co-hosts The Brink podcast, bringing field reporting and strategic analysis from conflicts including Gaza and Ukraine.

Sunday, at about 9:45 pm, local time, all our phones lit up. We were four Jews dining on a perfect late spring evening in Berlin, on the patio at Feinberg’s Restaurant, in an upscale neighborhood with a large gay demographic. Feinberg’s specializes in Israeli food. Kosher style. It’s a charming little bistro with tastefully upholstered cushions on the seats. Proper napkins and cutlery. Upscale Israeli.

In the midst of our meal Iran attacked Israel.

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We each went off into our separate digital zones, communicating with friends and family. My daughter’s partner had already been called up to reserve duty. Again.

The four of us had been in the throes of a robust but (for me) somewhat tedious discussion about the ultra-orthodox in Israel and their chronic shirking of military service. Two of my dinner companions were born in the FSU; one in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the other in Riga, Latvia. They arrived in Germany along with many Jews who escaped while they could and are among the 100,000 plus who remained and made their homes in this country.

Artur, from Kharkiv, romanticizes the shtetel mentality and life, seeing it as a sign of survival and determination. He does not even want to hear about the haredi abuse of state largesse. Marina, from Riga, is less doctrinaire. She is also realistic. Then again, she has a sister living in Israel with children who are serving presently. The reality of living in a state of constant war is something she understands as an immediate threat. She also sees the perversion of piety in modern Israel as the power grab it is and not some dewy-eyed rendition of Tevye (the protagonist in the classic Yiddish story - Fiddler on the Roof – (written by famed Yiddishist Shalom Aleichem, who titled the story Tevye and his Daughters). A classic among modern Jews, Fiddler on the Roof chronicles the physical travails and spiritual rewards of an orthodox man – Tevye – in an old Russian shtetl (ghetto). It makes a great musical show but it ain’t real life.

The third dinner companion is an Israeli-German lad who has just completed his military service and decamped to experience life elsewhere. He has extended family here and feels an attachment to the place. He also needs to get out of Israel and breathe, as do all newly released soldiers. He uses a different name in Germany. To blend in. One cannot be openly Jewish in Berlin.

Just this simple act, sitting on the patio of a Jewish restaurant, is daring.

I arrived earlier than my friends and spoke with Yorai Feinberg, the man behind this eponymous eatery. He recommended the porn star martini. I obliged. And we had a short chat.

Originally from Jerusalem, Feinberg left Israel as a teen to pursue his love of ballet and dance. He spent years in London and other European cities before quite randomly settling in Berlin in 2012. He opened the restaurant one year later. It quickly became a target for Muslim hostility. Long before October 7.

Quite unplanned, I recorded a short interview with Feinberg as we waited for the others to arrive. I had thought I’d cut a few clips but it’s a super interesting ten-minute conversation. The link is just below. We cover a lot of ground, focusing on his experience since opening the restaurant. Since 2013, Yorai, his employees, his patrons, have been harassed unceasingly by Arabs and Muslims. Customers sitting outside are bothered. Seat cushions were torn up just the night before I was there. Uber drivers refuse to service customers or deliver food. You get the idea.

I spoke with one of his wait staff when I arrived. He acknowledged the challenges but said, “we are brothers.” He is of Armenian descent. They get it, the Armenians.

As Yorai and I spoke, a marked police car pulled up and idled in front for quite some time. Until very recently, Feinberg told me, Berlin police surveilled the restaurant and his personal residence 24/7. He tells me about a known plot involving Iranian agents in which he and other Jewish individuals in Berlin were targeted.

I’ll say this for Berlin police: I have now visited the city several times since October 7. They do not mess around and have zero tolerance for Islamist hatred. Like, zero.

Here’s my conversation with Yorai Feinberg. It was spontaneous and low tech. So you will hear ambient street noise. Audio only:

The dinner that followed was sublime. I’m not much of a meat eater but I devoured the shared platters that were served. I also felt very vulnerable, to be honest. You sit there, out in the open, and you are a sitting duck. Dining al fresco becomes an inadvertent declaration of resistance.

Yorai is leaving the next morning for a short trip to the south of France, so we continue on without him: me, Marina, Artur and our nameless German-Israeli IDF reservist. We speak about the Islamization of Europe. Berlin. Each person at the table is a strong supporter of Israel, albeit with very divergent political views. Artur is hard right. He reveres Netanyahu as a sort of demi-god, beyond rebuke. Whatever Bibi does is brilliant, even when it’s not. And there is no room for discussion.

The common ground is the shared view of the Islamization of Europe. We talk about that. A lot. About how Germany is afraid of itself. Its past. And is just allowing this to happen.

Like Marina, who has a more nuanced understanding of, well, everything, Artur sees the Islamization of Germany as an inevitability. But none of them have plans to relocate. With Jews everywhere, it seems, there is this reluctant acknowledgement that society is moving in the wrong direction, but each person seems to believe that they will somehow manage to sidestep calamity.

Marina recently posted a long statement on social media in German. It went viral in Germany and gives you a peek into her daily reality.

Here is the English translation:

Nowadays, at every public appearance, I am asked whether I wouldn’t prefer to remain anonymous.

Not because I am a particularly prominent figure.

Nor because I bear a proud Jewish surname.

(Although—by now, that alone would be enough.)

Rather, it is because people now research us in order to track down our addresses.

To do us harm.

You see, I am a mother of two children.

My eldest now attends a Jewish school.

Not because we wish to segregate ourselves.

Not because we seek to create a parallel society.

But because antisemitic incidents occur time and again in public schools.

My younger child also bears a proud Jewish name.

That is why, at the playground, I only call him by his nickname.

Nanyu.

Because now, right here in our park, people are scrawling their hateful slogans onto the little wooden climbing tower.

There’s plenty of space there, you see.

Plenty of room to vent.

“Fuck Israhell.”

“Death to the IDF.”

“From the river to the sea.”

“Globalize Intifada.”

“What does this say, Mama? Why do you look so sad?”

Oh, sweetie—they are wishing death upon your cultural homeland, upon your aunt and your cousins ​​in Israel. They want there to be no Jews left in Israel. They are calling upon the world to unite against us Jews.

Of course, I didn’t say that out loud.

We don’t really speak out loud anymore, anyway.

Once—sometime after October 7th—when we were discussing the conflict in the Middle East out on our balcony, the neighbors next door hung up a banner:

“Free Gaza!!!”

I asked my husband:

“Do they mean us, dear?”

He is Serbian, you see.

He replied:

“No, baby. They mean you. I can’t free Gaza.” When we moved into this apartment, my husband said:

“Of course we’ll hang up the mezuzah. No one should have to hide their identity. We’re in Berlin, babe. The city of diversity.”

Today, he says:

“We don’t want to provoke anyone, do we?”

Provoke.

A mezuzah.

A small Jewish symbol on the door.

On our street in Schöneberg alone, we counted nine Palestinian flags after October 7th.

Naturally, our mezuzah shouldn’t provoke anyone here.

After all—as you know—a man in our neighborhood did provoke a knife attack just by wearing a Star of David pendant.

A small Star of David on one’s chest, it turns out, provokes a knife attack.

Just imagine what a mezuzah on the front door might provoke.

These days, we provoke very little at all.

We no longer speak Hebrew with our children in public.

When talking on the phone, we no longer say words like: Jewish, Israel, antisemitism, synagogue, Chag Sameach, Mazal Tov, Shabbat Shalom.

Funnily enough, words like Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, and October 7th seem to provoke people, too.

So, we don’t say those either.

We no longer unlock our phones while riding the train.

Group chat icons, friends’ avatars, Hebrew letters, yellow ribbons—any of it could be seen as a provocation.

Standing here today is a man whose yellow ribbon—pinned to his jacket just a few days ago—provoked a knife attack on the train.

A yellow ribbon.

Worn in solidarity with hostages.

Our building is old. Things break often.

Every time a repairman comes over, I rush through the apartment, hiding the Chanukkiah, the Birkat HaBayit, and any stickers lying around that read: “Berlin Against All Antisemitism.” During Hanukkah and Passover, putting everything away becomes a particularly cumbersome task.

All so as not to provoke anyone, of course. Not to mention delivery drivers or Uber drivers.

All people who know our addresses.

The latter, suddenly, all seem to come from Palestine now.

From Haifa.

The Jewish community has long since started sending out its magazine in a plain, unmarked envelope.

So as not to provoke, of course.

A great many of us no longer attend Jewish events.

Not the synagogue.

Not concerts by Jewish musicians.

Because it is dangerous.

In schools, teachers are afraid to take a stand against antisemitism.

They do not want to provoke the parents.

For a Jewish event involving young people, organizers preferred to buy a laminator and make the badges themselves, rather than sending a list of Jewish names to an outside company.

In the Germany of 2026, a laminator counts as a security strategy.

On Friday, Jewish art spaces were opened in Kreuzberg.

No sign on the door.

After all, one wouldn’t want to provoke anyone.

In Neukölln, a non-Jewish bar went a step too far in its efforts to combat antisemitism through its educational program—you see.

Now, it is guarded around the clock by three police cars.

Posters bearing the faces of the bar’s owners were plastered all over the streets, and the provoked populace was called upon to silence them—forever.

An entire district of the capital of that very country—the one that has tattooed the words “Never Again” onto its forehead; an entire district where every single wall screams at us that we are not welcome here.

Today we stand here because, in the oh-so-cosmopolitan Prenzlauer Berg, it was made unequivocally clear to us that we Jews apparently provoke merely by the fact that we exist.

“The only good Jew is a dead Jew.”

The silent Jew.

The museum-piece Jew.

The Jew from the memorial site.

But woe betide the Jew who lives.

Woe betide the Jew who wears a Star of David.

Woe betide the Jew who hangs a mezuzah on their door.

Woe betide the Jew who defends themselves.

Then—they are provoking.

I would like to ask you today:

Which other people—which other ethnic group, which other religious community—in this country experiences such a daily reality?

I am not speaking of exceptions.

I am speaking of the daily reality of every Jewish woman and every Jewish man in the Germany of 2026.

Please spare us your empty “Never Again” platitudes, dear government.

Spare us, too, your position papers and action plans.

Start taking action. Start calling things by their proper names:

Do not speak merely of “anti-Muslim racism” or “Islamophobia.” And do not speak of “integration failures” when what you mean is Islamism.

Do not speak merely of antisemitism when what you mean is unadulterated Jew-hatred.

Not only from the Right.

But also from the Left.

And do not speak of harmless anti-Zionism when what is meant is this:

The only good Jew is the dead Jew.

The one who cannot fight back.

But we are living Jews, and we will no longer keep our heads down. That is why we stand here today, appearing under our full names. Because we will no longer live in fear.

Get used to it.

Here is the original post in German on Instagram:

We lingered and were the last to leave Feinberg’s. I walked back to my hotel with the young, newly released IDF soldier. He has family in Germany and is keen to be immersed in a different environment. At the restaurant, we all spoke a jumble of English and Hebrew and Russian. On the walk through Berlin, we dared not utter a word of Hebrew.

Neither one of us could order an uber. We are both traveling with cell phones with the Israeli country code. 972. No uber driver in Berlin will pick us up. In fact, even when I am in Toronto, I do not use uber. Same reason.

Everywhere, everyone feels deeply unsettled but also, oddly, stuck.

Where can we go?

Where is it safe?

We can’t afford it.

Maybe things will improve.

When the Soviet regime fell and the exit gates opened close to two million Jews who had been trapped for decades jumped at the opporunity to leave. More than one million made their homes in Israel. Many relocated to America and Canada. And a surprisingly large number made their new home in Germany.

Germany. Of all places.

I recall vividly the horrified reaction of North American Jews.

How could they?

The North American Jewish community is diverse, of course, but in its marrow is reactionary and judgmental.

What they could not understand was how difficult it is to transplant oneself in middle age. Learn a new language. Establish oneself professionally. Germany made all of that easy. Resettlement was carefully thought through and supported. That is not the case in North America.

I learned last night that the FSU emigres to Germany were dispersed to towns and cities all over the huge, newly reunified country that had been split into two since WWII. I was surprised to learn that in a huge city like Berlin, there are only 10,000 Jews, at most. In Dortmund, with a population of 600,000, there are 6,000 Jews. Many Jewish families were directed by the German authorities to live in towns and cities in the former East Germany, with a depressed economy and need for revitalization in every way. And so, unlike in virtually every country in the world with a sizeable Jewish population, in Germany the community is dispersed. North American Jews would never submit to such control. But these weren’t North American Jews. They had been repressed indescribably. They accepted direction and support from the German government with gratitude.

In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of communism, more than 200,000 Jews from the FSU made their homes in Germany. Many subsequently moved elsewhere.

Today, there are approximately 130,000 German Jews, 90% of them with origins in the FSU. They have integrated well, revitalized Jewish life and they appreciate the opportunities this country gave them. They are not in a rush to leave. And, as Marina so forcefully says, they should not have to.

I recently had an online exchange with another friend, well-established in Toronto but clear-eyed about the future. He came with his family from Ukraine as a young boy and has been extremely successful – as has his wife (also from the FSU).

As seems to happen regularly these days, we ended up discussing where it is safe for Jews to live. We agreed on the limited options. I commented, “and even those are temporary.”

“Everything is temporary,” he replied. “We are a transient people.”

Everything, it seems, has changed, whereas in fact, so much remains the same.

(I’m pretty sure that Yorai does not decorate desserts for all with an Israeli flag, but we appreciated the gesture.)

I am scheduled to fly back to Israel tomorrow, Tuesday, with El Al, of course. And fortunately, it seems that I will make it home in spite of Iran’s best efforts to spark further conflict.

Cheers. L’chaim. And - as my father said every Friday night: “Chaim who?”

Dad joke.

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I’m pleased to bring you this long and spicy discussion with a great friend of State of Tel Aviv and Beyond, Ya’akov Katz. He and I have both been running around Europe and elsewhere…..but we caught up and recorded this episode on Sunday May 31. And we covered a lot of ground. We get into the endless war that Israel has been fighting for almost three years now with no apparent strategy - with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran. We speak candidly about Jewish terrorism in the West Bank and the government’s very deliberate policy and choice - to look away. And do nothing. Ya’akov always brings such crisp insights and deep knowledge to military matters, and he shares his thoughts on the lack of a clear strategy from the Prime Minister’s Office. Israelis are exhausted and this is a critical historical moment for the country. The ultra-orthodox refuse to serve in the IDF, extremists like Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir have amassed significant power, and it is beginning to look as if there is no plan. Other than the signature Netanyahu approach - survive another day. That won’t work any longer. Israel is up against too many walls and involved in too many conflicts. As Ya’akov astutely notes - “Bibi has created the Sparta that he was talking about one year ago.” You may recall Netanyahu’s comment in the recent past that Israel must become a great military power like ancient Sparta; totally self-reliant when it comes to manufacturing weapons of war.

And then there is the apparent divergence of interests between Netanyahu and Trump, Israel and America, when it comes to Iran. The honeymoon is over.

Oh - and of course we dip into the domestic mayhem taking root as we approach the election - which must take place before October 27 of this year.

It’s a lively and informative chat - you’ll learn a lot. I did.

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Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist. Between 2016 and 2023, Yaakov was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post where he continues to write a popular weekly column.

He is the author of three books: “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards—How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War.”

Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.

In 2013, Yaakov was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya and their four children.

Find Yaakov Katz on X.

More info here about the book

“Crisply written... draws on excellent sources within Israel’s military and intelligence services.” —The Wall Street Journal

A powerful indictment of the political and military decisions that led to October 7

While Israel Slept tells the gripping inside story of how Hamas, Israel’s weakest enemy, succeeded in launching a surprise attack on one of the world’s most powerful militaries. Through a detailed examination of the events leading up to October 7, 2023, the book exposes the intelligence and strategic failures that enabled this devastating invasion. It takes readers back in time, showing how years of complacency, mistaken intelligence analysis, and a misguided policy of containment enabled Hamas to prepare for an assault that Israel did not believe was possible and that would change the Middle East.

The book unveils the dramatic events of the night before the attack, highlighting the cracks in Israel’s military and political leadership. It provides unprecedented details on how key warnings were missed, and how Israel ignored the growing threat from Hamas, believing that the group was weak and deterred. By exposing these failures, While Israel Slept offers a stark, sobering account of how overconfidence and complacency paved the way for disaster, while underscoring the critical lessons Israel must embrace to safeguard its future.

The sniping among right of center media personalities in the United States in recent months has been a non-stop exchange of barbs and insults. And it has become very, very ugly of late. A central figure in this weird ecosystem is Tucker Carlson, former Fox News host, now a successful independent podcaster with millions of followers and extensive reach. Carlson has sparked controversy and outrage for many reasons, but we focus in this podcast on his comments on Israel, wealthy American Jews, AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Coalition and his very strong suggestion that Israel and Jews control the White House and, therefore, America. Carlson is outraged that President Trump chose to go to war against Iran and asserts boldly and often that he was bullied into doing so by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Even worse, in acting in this way, Carlson maintains that Trump put the national interest of Israel ahead of America’s.

On Tuesday, May 16, one of Israel’s top television anchors, Udi Segal, interviewed Carlson to challenge many of his claims. It was a feisty exchange, to put it mildly. I spoke with Udi Segal the following morning about why he felt it was important to give Tucker oxygen (as I like to say)? Why amplify his voice?

It’s not an everyday thing - to interview a top journalist about his interview with another journalist. Talk about inside baseball! But this was important. Udi challenged Carlson for defending Putin’s attack on Ukraine as being defensive and eminently justifiable, while insisting that Israel is a terrorist state. Genocidal. We all need to know what Tucker Carlson and those of his ilk are saying and doing because their simplistic demagoguery is mesmerizing a large segment of the population. And that is dangerous. His ideas and views are also dangerous - and based in a malevolent agenda. Carlson loves to bellow that he asserts facts, when he does nothing of the sort. He peddles gutter prejudice and bitterness but manages to present himself as a thoughtful, analytical, compassionate man with laudable values. He is anything but.

I spent more time than I care to admit in the last week studying Carlson’s interviews and monologues, especially those pertaining to Israel and the war. Some say he’s an apologist for Islamists. Have a listen (or watch). You decide.

The emergence of a robust independent media sector that is openly hostile to Israel Jews and promotes deeply concerning ideas (facts, as Carlson calls them) is a harsh reality. This increasingly influential cohort asserts that Jews are disloyal, evil, violent. Immoral, and subversively controlling and manipulating America and other nations with their money and wily ways. We have a serious problem.

And we should really pay careful attention to this. It’s not just a Jewish issue. It’s a threat to democracy and liberal societies.

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Podcast Notes

1. 15-minute edited interview with Tucker Carlson that aired on Israel’s channel 13 on Tuesday May 16

2. Full unedited 45-minute interview with Tucker Carlson and Udi Segal

3. Unedited clip of Tucker Carlson appearing at the Doha Conference, December 6, 2025.

4. “Brothers in Arms”, article by Udi Segal published in the launch edition of State of Tel Aviv, May 17, 2022.

5. Website of Israeli artist Yoram Gal, who painted the original artwork for the launch edition of STLV.

6. Links to State of Tel Aviv and Beyond podcasts looking at how pro-Israel guests were treated on Piers Morgan’s show “Uncensored”
   
   

7. Article in State of Tel Aviv published June 5, 2025, titled, “Joe Rogan, Dave Smith, Douglas Murray, Piers Morgan and Natasha Hausdorff: So much fuss over talk shows. Why?

About Udi Segal

Udi Segal is the senior anchor and analyst of the evening news of Israel’s TV channel 13.

Previously, he was the diplomatic correspondent for another major TV station. He has worked as the New York bureau chief for the newspaper, Ma’ariv, and began his journalism career as a correspondent at IDF radio, “Galei Tzahal.”

He teaches journalism and television reporting in the Riechman University.

Segal is married and has 4 children. He lives in a moshav near Netanya, not far from the sea where he practices his favorite sport of rowing a SUP (stand up paddleboarding).

An acquaintance from Toronto arrived recently for a visit to Israel. She marvels at how busy and buzzy things are in Tel Aviv. She cannot come up for air. The days whiz by.

All true. And a not small reason for my escape from Tel Aviv to kibbutz life in the south. Two years on I can say with clarity and certainty that the move saved me. Particularly since the current government coalition assumed power in Israel – officially in January 2023 (it always takes a few months to negotiate the terms of a governing coalition after an election) – life in Tel Aviv has been beyond frenetic.

Judicial reform. Constant demonstrations.

A pace of construction that continues to accelerate, making every outing a logistical challenge. What should take ten minutes can take 60. It is maddening and exhausting.

Constant tension – which is exacerbated by the population density and so much busy activity.

October 7. Hostage Square. Gloom. Everywhere. But it always feels more intense in Tel Aviv. Because. Tel Aviv.

April 13-14, 2024. First Iran attack on Tel Aviv. “Alert. Find safe shelter immediately. Israel is going to be under attack by waves of swarms of drones and missiles from Iran.”

Those may not be the exact words but they are close enough to the message sent on Saturday April 13, 2024 at around 8:45pm. All Israeli cell phones were overridden by the Home Front Command.

It was very, very scary.

Where I live now, I hear birds. Constantly. I work on my deck and watch the planting and growing and harvest seasons pass. I have grown to detest pigeons. The air is fresher, dryer and there is always a breeze. I have learned that dust comes in clumps. Huge clumps. Endless clumps. Vacuuming is futile. I now read articles about the physics of dust formation.

Seriously.

I have acquired a collection of dusting gadgets. Old fashioned feather dusters. Newfangled dusters with removable, washable parts. I have a collection of vacuum cleaners and related accessories. Two floors. Rugs. Tile. Bendable vacuums to reach under beds and furniture. Little vacuums that get into corners. I’m considering, seriously, the roving robot duster. Like – why not? I am a dust fiend. I live in a dustbowl and dust is my new obsession. I hate dust. Almost as much as mosquitoes.

The mosquitoes are so small that you cannot see them. But they find me. And devour sections of limbs in one sitting. Little teeny bites. Not like Canadian mosquitoes. As with everything in Israel, even the pests are tiny.

With the exception, of course, of cockroaches. They are the size of a small puppy.

So, yes, life on a kibbutz in the south is good. I am calmer. Day to day life is easier. Traffic is a joke. Grocery shopping is way cheaper and quicker. My pool is a dream. And now that Hamas has been suppressed, well, we don’t have rockets in these parts like we used to. And - I’m in Tel Aviv for my dose of urban-ness every week. Gotta maintain that edge.

But the idyll where I hide out these days has its sharp edges. too.

October 7 is our inescapable reality. Displaced members of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the most ravaged on that horrible day, live in new neighborhoods built for them in my community. We all drive constantly on Road 232 – the main artery for Hamas slaughter that day. Memorials are scattered on roadsides everywhere you look. Bus stops which double as bomb shelters – each one has its singular, gruesome story.

And as we navigate this new reality – living in the midst of it all – we try to find a common language; a way to inhabit this physical place where it all went down, with the constant reminders. My friend who lives on a kibbutz that was miraculously passed over by Hamas on October 7, she sees herself as a positive type. She chooses to tune out politics and related matters. I think she finds it all kind of not positive. She sent me a message last week from the train, as she passed bales of hay. She saw this as something positive, a tangible reminder of the miracle of the amazing country we have built here and the hope for the next moment.

Me? I see the bales of hay, the same miracle, and allow myself to consider the very real possibility that this deeply divided and dysfunctional society may self-immolate. It’s not about being negative or lacking hope. I see it as being realistic and understanding the perilous moment in which we find ourselves. We must see the positive and reckon with the not so positive.

And this moment in Israeli there is a bewildering mix of each.

For decades, Israelis have chosen to tell themselves that “it’ll be ok.” But it may not, this time. And it behooves us all to face that prospect and marshal everything we can to prevent that outcome.

Which brings us to the upcoming election, and politics.

Elections in Israel must be held by the end of October, latest. I believe that the future of Israel – and the physical safety of Jews everywhere – turns on the outcome of this vote.

Especially since October 7, the government has been telling us, without pause, that we are one people, united. But that is not true. Israel today is comprised of at least three very autonomous societies. If they were to be mapped onto a Venn diagram there would be virtually no overlap.

A very powerful autonomous entity is the 15% of the population, which is ultra-orthodox, or haredi. The singular issue on which this population will vote is the military draft. Haredim are virulently opposed to serving the state in any capacity, including security. They supported the coalition government led by PM Netanyahu because of his promise to pass a law excluding their community members from any national service. Men and women. They oppose the modern iteration of the State of Israel as blasphemous. Only the Messiah can create the Jewish state. None of this is new. Or secret.

They do, however, manage to overcome their aversion to the heretical state and participate in its government; to demand and receive exceedingly generous life entitlements to enable them to maintain their lives of religious devotion, large families and little or no work.

I wrote about this phenomenon in a past issue of State of Tel Aviv. It is beyond ironic that in the 2000s, as Minister of Finance, Benjamin Netanyahu slashed haredi entitlements harshly. He said that the haredi expectations were simply not sustainable. In fact, in his memoir published when he was in the penalty box (opposition) from June 2021 to December 2022, he boasted about his achievements in managing haredi demands in a chapter entitled “Fat Man, Thin Man.” As is clear from the drawing, below, he likened the thin man to the majority of Israelis carrying financial and civic burdens. On their shoulders were the fat men - haredi men - who took and gave little.

In fact, I spoke earlier this week with former MK and founder of the new Oz party, Dr. Einat Wilf, about this extreme social imbalance. You will hear the podcast discussion with Einat soon, but when I asked about hard data, she had it. Haredim, she advised, receive a net benefit of NIS 15,000 per person. Everyone else? They give more - and have a net deficit in their financial relationship with the state, of NIS 10,000 per person. Facts. It is difficult - perhaps downright impossible - to justify and maintain this equation.

You can read State of Tel Aviv’s rendering of that issue here: stateoftelaviv.com/p/fat-man-thin-man-will-netanyahu-upend-his-economic-legacy

Back to election drama.

Early last week, Bibi’s ultra-orthodox coalition allies in the United Torah Judaism party had a chat with their leader in all matters spiritual and political, Rabbi Dov Lando. Upon learning that Netanyahu had told UTJ that there was no way that legislation legalizing the haredi shirking of military service, Rabbi Lando was furious. “Bibi lied. He cannot be trusted.” Such was the nature of the Rabbi’s epiphany. Rabbi Lando directed the UTJ MKs that the time had come to bolt the coalition and bring the House down. As in, the government coalition would collapse and new elections would be held, soonest.

It truly is all the haredim care about; ensuring that they shirk all forms of military and national service and that they continue to maximize all manner of financial support from the state.

They do not give a damn about the rest. The bales of hay? They don’t even see them, never mind ponder their signficance.

Below - a photo of Rabbi Lando from a year or two ago. I urge you to read the JPost article in the link underneath the picture. This is how serious things are in Israel today.

(For fun have a read of this article from 2015, in which Rabbi Lando is quoted for making very clear his contempt for Israel and Zionism: jpost.com/breaking-news/article-841327)

So, as if we have nothing more important going on here, this is what preoccupies our “leaders” these days.

The haredim want an election on September 1. That works out beautifully for them….at the end of their annual August vacation and before the extended period of high holiday observance begins. It’s early this year – Erev Rosh Hashanah begins on September 11.

For the rest of us, September 1 is not ideal. There’s the minor matter of the kickoff of the school year being on September 1. (Haredim have their own autonomous school system (funded by the state) in which they teach no “secular” subjects - like math, science or English - just religious studies all day long. This, of course, ensures that the graduates of their schools are ill, if at all prepared, to work, even in the. most menial jobs.) School buildings double as voting stations throughout the country, so mayhem upon chaos is not ideal planning. Haredim are dead set against any date between Rosh Hashanah and the last holiday, which falls on Sunday October 4. That’s eerily close to the third “anniversary” of October 7. So, Bibi is saying: “Gee. Let’s just make the election on the last day possible, by law, October 27, and call it a done deal.”

It is unclear whether an earlier or later date favors either constituency, but Netanyahu always errs on the side of buying time. Delay. Rag the puck. Run the clock.

Meanwhile, “Israel Our Home” party leader and former Netanyahu ally, now nemesis, Avigdor Liberman, showed up at Kibbutz Be’eri on Thursday May 14, using the border kibbutz that was viciously attacked on October 7 as his theatrical backdrop for a tete a tete with reporters.. His take? Bibi will look to spark a war in the very near future – maybe even re-start the Gaza conflict with Hamas – and use that emergency to legally delay the national vote and boost his standing among Israeli voters.

I’ve been anticipating a slippery move like that for months. It’s so consistent with Bibi’s style. And Lieberman understands how Bibi’s mind works. He was, after all, his closest aide in the late 90s. Lieberman has a good feel for what’s cooking.

The Kristof Thing

I will be brief. Some of you may not be aware of the Kristof fiasco. Others will have heard and read about it non-stop in recent days. I get into some graphic sexual comments in the next paragraph - be forewarned.

Here’s the lowdown: Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist and former foreign correspondent, Nicholas Kristof, wrote an op-ed for the paper last week in which he reported, with supreme confidence, on systemic violent sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Among his fabulist claims was the beyond sick and twisted assertion that the IDF trains dogs to rape – as in penetrate male prisoners - anally. In making this claim, Kristof relies upon an Israeli-American man who I will not name because he merits no further attention. He has less than no credibility and even admitted publicly that this dog claim he makes is unverified. Nevertheless, Kristof and the NYT not only relied upon this man’s information as evidence but they are digging in.

Since this debacle began, people have been sniffing around Kristof’s pedigree and past. Among other gems, someone turned up a long-ago published piece by Kristof memorializing his father. Turns out, his old man fought alongside the Nazis – like the real ones – during WWII. In Romania.

I sent him this inquiry. He has yet to reply:

Aside from the NYT, the only media to carry this sewage - the Kristof dog rape exclusive (that I’ve come across) - is a Turkish-owned outlet, TRT. I’m sure there are more but I don’t waste my time ferreting them out.

Well done, NYT. Quite the scoop.

Meanwhile, scores of canine experts the world over are stepping up to assert that the claim made in the NYT is absolute bunk. Kristof stands tall. He tells the world that he wrote it as an “opinion” piece. As if that somehow mitigates his toxicity and utter lack of professional ethics. Or any ethics. For that matter.

OK. Promise made, promise kept.

Close out each weekly wrap with light stuff.

My daughter who lives in the Tel Aviv area spontaneously hopped on a train on Friday afternoon. We drove to Be’er Sheva, a desert city with close to 250,000 residents now. We had a lovely dinner at a decent Asian restaurant (this is not Tel Aviv – almost nothing is open on shabbat in these parts). And then, The Devil Wears Prada!

The cinema was huge. Capacity of several hundred. No exaggeration – there were, at most, ten people in the theater. It was mindless, delightful fun.

The End.

Oh. Well, almost. As we were leaving I spotted one of those old photo booths. Remember - fellow boomers? They were in Kresge stores in the olden days – like WalMart today (for all you non-boomer readers).

Yes. It was silly and fun.

Happy Sunday – and have a great week.

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Jonathan Conricus has returned from a short North American speaking tour and joined me on Sunday evening to take a close look at where things stand with America and Iran. It is challenging to keep up and even more difficult to decode the often-conflicting messages issued by the main protagonists: the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. We get into the possible responses that may come from the parties and the implications for the region and the world. Who is running Iran these days and making decisions? Unclear but we have a pretty good idea. Will Iran act on its threats to impose taxes on all maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz? How about their latest initiative - to tax all data passing through internet cables that are laid at the bottom of the Persian Gulf? Or - maybe they will sever the cables and disrupt global commerce? So many possibilities and we get into them all.

Why is Iran attacking the UAE so consistently and hard? And why is the UAE not responding? Oh - and we also spend a bit of time marveling at the tendency of western media to accept the “spin” coming out of Iran, pretty. much unquestioningly.

This pod was recorded on Sunday night, but it is current as of 10 am EST on Tuesday. At the end of the episode I include a short clip of Conricus speaking on Monday to media. He addresses America’s rejection of the Iranian response to the most recent U.S. proposal to…..formalize the ceasefire? End the war? This became public after we recorded on Sunday night.

It never stops……

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Jonathan Conricus is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. He served in the IDF for 24 years, four of them as spokesman during the intense 11 days of the Guardian of the Walls Operation between Israel and Hamas. Now a reserve officer with the rank of Lt. Col., he is a sought-after speaker internationally and is frequently seen on major television news shows. Jonathan was born in Jerusalem to a Swedish father and an Israeli mother and spent his formative years in Sweden.

Idsinga’s recently published book: “The High Road: Confessions of a Homicide Cop”, was released in early May and is prompting discussion about the conduct of the Toronto Police Force, particularly since October 7. Toronto has become a dangerous city for Jews to live in. Hostility toward Jewish people is overt, everywhere and inescapable. It was clear from October 7 that something was very wrong with how Toronto police were dealing with the outburst of Jew-hatred. The antisemites were given free rein. Police spoke about constitutional rights and other high-minded issues, which actually had nothing to do with the illegal conduct proliferating on Toronto streets. In fact, the cops protected the “protesters”, insisting they were not breaking laws and that their conduct was “peaceful.” Well, they were breaking many laws, and their conduct was anything but peaceful. Almost three years later, Toronto is unrecognizable and considered to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world in which to live today, as a Jew. This podcast episode is a touch longer than our usual, because there is so much important information to be shared.

We focus on Hank Idsinga, his personal story and how that influenced his career, particularly in the later years. And we get into the way in which Toronto Police have handled overt and often violent antisemitism since October 7. Their conduct is indefensible. Inexplicable. And I have been writing and podcasting about this tirelessly. Only now, as attacks on Jews have become more frequent and violent - attracting international attention - has the Toronto Police Service even acknowledged that there may be, you know, a problem.

I have provided time stamps for three sections of the podcast, so you can jump around or skip. But I urge you to listen to them all. They build on and reinforce one another. And the story of what is going down in Toronto is just one extreme example of what we are seeing in many cities around the world. This will not just “go away”.

Thanks to Andrea Marcus, a friend, proud lifelong Torontonian, brilliant artist, and sponsor of this episode of State of Tel Aviv and Beyond. Like so many Canadians, Andrea is devastated by what has happened to Canada and Toronto, particularly in recent years. They are unrecognizable.

If you would like to be like Andrea and support our work by sponsoring an episode or two, please contact me directly. vivian@stateoftelaviv.com

Time Stamps:

Part I - Introduction to Hank Idsinga and the Toronto Police Force 00-34:54

Part II - Toronto Police and Jews: Open Contempt at a Recent Press Conference 34:55-37:41

Part III - Deep Dive into Post October 7 Toronto Police Conduct 37:42-end

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Hank Idsinga was a member of the Toronto Police Services for thirty years, leading the country’s top homicide unit for five years. Having served as Detective Sergeant and, later, Inspector in charge of Toronto’s Homicide Squad, he has policed just about every kind of case you can imagine, and has stared down some of the hardest criminals the city has ever seen. Idsinga has received numerous awards from the Ontario Homicide Investigator’s Association, and has twice been recognized by Toronto Life magazine as one of Toronto’s 50 Most Influential People. Additionally, he is a regular presenter at policing conferences, including the FBI National Academy Associates Conference and the Ontario Homicide Investigators Conference, among others. Recently retired and now a crime commentary fixture on the Corus radio network (nationally) and Global Television, as well as American crime series in production, Idsinga speaks widely about policing in the wake of a highly decorated career.

From decorated homicide detective Hank Idsinga comes The High Road—a raw, riveting true crime memoir from the man who helped take down one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers.

Hank Idsinga knew from the age of ten that he wanted to solve murders—especially after learning his grandfather had been executed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Over a thirty-year career with Toronto Police Services, Idsinga rose through the ranks to lead the country’s top homicide unit. From street crime to serial killers, he saw it all—and now, for the first time, he tells the story in his own voice.

Written in a hard-boiled but deeply human tone, The High Road chronicles the highs and horrors of life on the homicide beat. Idsinga recounts some of Toronto’s most gripping cases that caught the attention of the nation, including the Boxing Day shooting of Jane Creba, the Yonge Street shootouts, and—most infamously—the Bruce McArthur serial killer investigation. With equal parts warmth, candor, and gravity, he offers rare insight into how detectives do their work, how justice is served, and how the toll of the job is carried quietly and constantly.

Far from glorifying violence, Idsinga focuses on the people at the heart of each case: the victims, the families, and the fellow officers who became like family over decades of service. Many of those families remain in touch with him today, a testament to his character and compassion.

With the rise of true crime podcasts and docuseries, audiences are hungry for authentic, unfiltered voices—and The High Road delivers. This isn’t just a book about catching killers. It’s about the moral weight of justice, the value of empathy, and the complicated humanity on both sides of the badge.

Podcast Notes

In the podcast I refer often to how entrenched antisemitism is in Canada and how obvious that has become since October 7. Below are links to two articles published in Toronto media regarding Idsinga’s allegations regarding antisemitism on the police force.

Following are links to podcasts and written articles by me, on the State of Tel Aviv website and in other publications. This is just a sampling of the work I have done on antisemitism in Canada, focusing on Toronto, since October 7.

And there’s much more.

Special Note: We had planned to drop the second podcast today focusing on the violent antisemitism in Toronto, that has been receiving so much international attention recently. And it was all ready to go when - something happened. I thought it was significant enough to merit holding the pod for one day so that it could be included.. Apologies - but tomorrow - Monday - is a sure thing. The podcast shall be sent out.

Election season is upon us.

By law, Israelis must go to the polls before the end of October 2026. The last election was held on October 30, 2022; the fifth one in less than four years. The result was the extremist coalition government headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu that has been in power since.

Through the judicial reform protests.

October 7.

War. After War. After War.

Almost three years after October 7, one might expect that the way forward is clear.

It is anything but.

Israel is more divided than ever, and political strategists are unable to explain why.

So – allow me to give it a go…..

To many Israelis - myself included – the possibility of a government comprised of those currently in the coalition is a dark prospect.

In last week’s wrap, we included a discussion of Jewish Power leader Itamar Ben Gvir - who is also the coalition’s Minister of National Security.

He celebrated his 50^th birthday with a collection of cakes featuring nooses, guns and his portrait.

To refresh your memory, or in case you missed it, this is on topic from last week’s wrap:

In another classy move, Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir hosted a 50th birthday party for himself last night. In addition to the Chief of Israel’s police force, many senior cops were also invited and attended, which has caused something of a flap. Traditionally, there is a polite and professional distance maintained between political leadership and senior public servants. Ben Gvir and the police leadership that attended this soiree erased that line.

There were several cakes served at the party last night. The tiered beauty below was topped with Ben Gvir’s trinket of choice these days - a gold noose. Note his portrait in the middle. On the base - there is a map of Israel (including the West Bank) flanked by black guns – on either side.

Yummy!

The reaction to Ben Gvir’s grotesque celebration of violence was pretty much widespread disgust. Even for a professional provocateur this display of tasteless extremism was just too much.

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Ben Gvir also received a birthday surprise from Yonatan Shamriz, the brother of Alon, who was 26 when killed on December 15, 2023, in the Gaza Strip. Alon had been taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 from his home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Along with two other male hostages, Alon somehow managed to break free from his captors. But when spotted by IDF troops they were all shot dead, in the mistaken belief that they were Hamas foils trying to entrap the soldiers. That was a tried-and-true Hamas tactic – to lure IDF soldiers into ambushes by using civilians as bait. Tragically, on that day, they were hostages.

The triple death gutted Israelis. It was incomprehensible.

Since October 7, Yonatan Shamriz became a social and political activist, in addition to his side gigs as a successful businessman, husband, father, son, brother.

He founded a movement called Kumu – meaning – “Awaken” in Hebrew and his advocacy has focused on restoring ethical conduct to key institutions in Israel. Most Israelis see October 7 as a direct result of massive institutional failures; years of arrogance, corruption and negligent leadership.

Here is Yonatan Shamriz’s birthday video to Itamar Ben Gvir, with English subtitles.

Translated by Maya Naftolin

Shamriz is not some kooky radical. His views are pretty mainstream. Israelis have been duped and worse by military and political leadership and they have had so much more than enough. The rage is palpable. I thought it would be interesting for you to see and experience the mood here. I’m not sure that people outside the country appreciate how intense the rage remains. Perhaps even moreso than on October 8. Because after almost three years, we still have the same government in power that created the conditions for the disaster. And that government has still not taken responsibility for that day. The Prime Minister refuses to accept any responsibility for October 7.

I was speaking recently with an American friend, who asked me a question I hear all the time: “Who else is there?”

Meaning - who, other than Bibi, can lead Israel?

Seriously?

Another question that has been popping up frequently - is about the recent merger of the parties led by right-ish former PM Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid.

What does it mean?

Honestly? Not much. It means that they are trying to form a large bloc to give them an edge when it comes to being tasked by the President with forming a coalition after the next vote. Typically (but not always) it is the party with the most mandates that is given the opportunity to form a coalition of at least 61 seats.

Aside from that. It’s a little early for this sort of jockeying. The Bennett-Lapid merger kind of surprised many astute observers of Israeli politics. But – it does give them time to entice more parties to join them. Like former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose party is polling very strongly. For many reasons it seems unlikely that Eisenkot will join the two musketeers. In fact, he recruited a star candidate recently, who appeared in an interview last night with one of Israel’s top journalists. His comments were such fire and brimstone that I may have it translated to share with you next week.

Israeli politics is all about coalition building. Netanyahu has spent four years pandering to the most destructive, dangerous, extremist forces in Israeli public life; the largely anti-Zionist ultra-orthodox bloc, and the extremist messianist demographic.

Likud, as well, is not what it once was. The brains and talent have peeled off over the years, leaving a husk of what the party once was.

A big problem is that most of the more reasonable Israeli voters tend not to exercise their democratic franchise. E-Day is a holiday in Israel. People prefer going to the beach or shopping. But so much turns on the outcome of this election. Voters must see that and show up.

Because the extremists? They are very motivated. They turn out to vote. The ultra-orthodox? Historically, they have done whatever their rabbis direct. Voter turnout in heavily haredi cities often exceeds 100%. For real.

Only an invigorated electorate will usher in the change that this country so desperately needs. Should the extremists prevail, I fear the worst for Israel. But more on that in the coming months. Election season is just gearing up.

What do the majority of Israelis care about today?

They care about the ultra-orthodox shirking any and all military service.

They care about equality. A properly functioning and accountable democracy. They care about Jewish terrorism, which is not a “fringe” issue or concern.

They care about competence - in the army, government and security services.

If another extremist coalition prevails, I believe it will herald the demise of a modern, technologically advanced Israel. The talent will leave. It will hemorrhage.

It is amazing that at age 76, having held the top job in Israel for most of the past 30 years, Benjamin Netanyahu – a brilliant man – either does not see the extreme damage he is causing to Israel, or he does not care.

To Israelis, his motive is not important. We’ve lost interest. The survival of a liberal, democratic Israel, however, is. It is all that matters.

I’m trying to think of something light and nice to end with……my weekly pledge.

Happy Mother’s Day. If you aren’t one then you have one. And you know one.

As a matter of interest, Mother’s Day isn’t a thing in Israel. I only remembered because of messages from many of my friends in Canada and the U.S.

Until next week……

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In March, shortly after three synagogues were shot up in Toronto in one week, the world took note. Within days of the shootings, I interviewed Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli. He said - and it is in this podcast - that Canada is at the top of a list that no one should want to be on: he regards Canada as being perhaps the most dangerous place in the world to be Jewish these days. His strong concerns are shared by Sharren Haskel, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Both Chikli and Haskel have been paying attention to the grim reality on the ground for Canadian Jews - especially since October 7. They do not hold back. And they also bring to the discussion a global perspective. Their job is to be on top of the status of Jewish communities all over the world - and they are watching like hawks. This is about Canada, yes, but it is about so much more.

Their comments and observations are from March and I have provided updated context in the podcast narrative. Almost immediately after the drama in Toronto things got pretty crazy in the UK, especially London. And the war in Iran exploded. Sometimes, events overtake the material I have prepared……and I had to hold these interviews until those crises subsided, temporarily. So - here we are. And in the meantime……the mess, if I can call it that, remains a mess.

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Amichai Chikli is an Israeli politician who serves as the Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism. In the past he worked as an educator and social entrepreneur.

Chikli was born in 1981 in Jerusalem. He served as an officer in the Golani brigade, an elite IDF unit.

Following his military service, Chikli earned a bachelor’s degree in security and Middle Eastern studies from Haifa University and a master’s degree in security studies and diplomacy from Tel Aviv University. Minister Chikli is married and has three children.

Sharren Haskel is 41 years old, married and the mother of three young children.

At 18, she served in the Israel Defense Force, as a combat soldier in the Border Guards during the Second Intifada. Following her military service, Deputy Minister Haskel pursued a career in veterinary medicine.

Haskel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Relations from The Open University in Israel, where she also was the Israeli national debating champion. She entered the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in 2015.

In November 2024, she was sworn in as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

By law, an election must be held in Israel by the end of October this year.

It can’t come soon enough.

It’s already May, incredibly… meaning that a June election is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Same for July-August. That is the big summer holiday season (it is actually called “big holiday” in Hebrew) and disrupting travel plans for war-weary Israelis will not be a winning strategy.

September is High Holiday time – they fall and finish early this year. Meaning that the election will likely push the time limit and occur at some point in mid to late October.

Until now, there was a general consensus that PM Netanyahu would avoid an October election because – “October” – is not a good month for Israel. October 7.

But we are definitely seeing the whole election machinery thing rev up. Last week former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid held a press conference to announce the formation of their new party – “B’yachad” - which means “together.” They are uniting to form a party that they hope will bring a plurality of seats, making them the first to be tapped by the President to form a governing coalition. That’s how it works here.

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Polling shows that B’yachad and Likud are neck in neck – so the contest is now focused on signing up other small parties - or wooing them if tasked to form a coalition. To control the Knesset a coalition requires a minimum of 61 seats.

In response to the Bennett-Lapid move, Netanyahu put out an Instagram post – showing him cheerfully working out and looking trim and fit. He’s 76. Wears a pacemaker. And the Israeli public just learned recently that he has been treated for cancer. But nothing to fret about. His social media team clearly things that showing him working out in a gym dispels any concerns regarding his health. Cuz. He’s fine. See? Here’s a video to prove it!

For most Israelis, this election is about one thing: ending the illegal draft dodging of the ultra-orthodox community, which has imposed an inhuman burden on those who do serve.

Depending on who you speak to, there is a subset of issues: Jewish terrorism; eliminating financial subsidies for the ultra-orthodox; restoring civic confidence in key state institutions – like the army, police and government; and establishing, finally a State Commission of Inquiry into October 7. What happened. Why. How.

The ultra-orthodox form a distinct society in Israel and care pretty much exclusively about two issues: that the state allows them to continue to shirk military service and that they be compensated handsomely by the state for doing so.

Here’s another rebuttal from Netanyahu’s to the merger of Lapid and Bennett’s parties:

The clip, of course, features Bennett on the left and Lapid on the right, looking sharp, fit and pleased with themselves. But when they peel off their masks, they are revealed to really be Ahmed Tibi, Mansour Abbas and Yair Golan. Tibi and Abbas are two Arab MKs. Golan leads the left-wing Democrats party. In other words, Bibi is saying - a vote for Bennett and Lapid is really a vote for the Arabs and the left to lead Israel.

In another classy move, Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir hosted a 50th birthday party for himself last night. In addition to the Chief of Israel’s police force, many senior cops were also invited and attended, which has caused something of a flap. Traditionally, there is a polite and professional distance maintained between political leadership and senior public servants. Ben Gvir and the police leadership that attended this soiree erased that line.

There were several cakes served at the party last night. The tiered beauty below was topped with Ben Gvir’s trinket of choice these days - a gold noose. Note his portrait in the middle. On the base - there is a map of Israel (including the West Bank) flanked by black guns – on either side.

Yummy!

Here is a short video clip of Ben Gvir that night with his wife, Ayala.

She is presenting him with a smaller cake also decorated with a gold noose. The writing on the cake: “Congratulations Minister Ben Gvir. Dreams do come true.”

Since he led the passage of legislation allowing the capital punishment of convicted terrorists, Ben Gvir and the golden noose have been ubiquitous. (It’s not actually a new law but it is an opportunity to pretend as much and for Ben Gvir to promote himself as the tough guy.) I wrote about this noose obsession in a recent weekly wrap:

The bit about Ben Gvir is about halfway down the piece – you’ll see the photo of a noose sticker.

Before you go…..

I’m not really delivering this week on my aspiration to close out with a lighter bit of news. I just keep coming up blank. So this will have to do. An interview of then Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Abba Eban, with legendary 60 Minutes journalist, Mike Wallace. The occasion for the chat was the 10th anniversary of the existence of the state of Israel.

Aside from making me achingly nostalgic for Eban’s oratorical skill and magic, it’s a fascinating interview.

Sadly, the issues of today are strikingly similar to what was being discussed in 1958. When it came to Israel.

I absolutely love how Eban totally flips Wallace’s negative introduction, which focuses on violence and war:

Wallace: What do you foresee for the next ten years? Do you foresee continuing violence?

Eban: Well, Mr. Wallace, the last ten years have not only been years of violence, they have been incomparable years of joyous creation, of sovereignty restored, of a people gathered in, of a land revived, of a democracy established, but there has also been violence imposed by the hostility of our neighbors. For our second decade we devoutly hope for a period of peaceful consolidation

I commend to you the entire interview, 22 minutes which will be well spent. Eban was always a towering intellect with a great mastery of language, and this reminds me of how elevated and elevating public officials can be.

Thanks for being here, as always. Have a good week.

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