Call Me Back - with Dan Senor: Recent Episodes
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In recent weeks, with the IDF focusing most of its attention on the Northern front, the media has been paying less attention to what’s actually happening in Gaza. What would constitute the Gaza War being over? Is there any progress on a Day After Plan for Gaza? What is the status of hostage negotiations and other efforts to free the hostages? What would the future (medium-term/long-term) Israeli presence in Gaza look like?
To help us connect these dots, Haviv Rettig Gur returns to the podcast.
Haviv Rettig Gur is the political analyst at The Times of Israel. He was a long time reporter for the Times of Israel. Haviv was also a combat medic in the IDF where he served in the reserves.
Watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZTiuntsCs8
Regardless of who you voted for in the U.S. presidential election, many of us are continuing to attempt to unpack what happened in this extraordinary election. There has been a lot of analysis of the various demographic shifts.
But less attention has been paid to Jewish voters and the role they played - as well as the issues of the Israel-Hamas war and rising antisemitism in the U.S. How did these issues impact how Americans - both Jewish and non-Jewish - chose to vote?
To discuss, our guest today is Congressman Ritchie Torres. Rep. Torres lives in the Bronx and represents New York’s 15th congressional district. He is a member of the House Committee on Financial Services and the House’s Elect Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. He has been on the front lines of electoral politics this year, both in his congressional district in the Bronx, and nationally, as a champion on the issue of Israel and antisemitism.
Item discussed in this episode: Michael Powell’s interview with Ritchie Torres in the Atlantic - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/democrats-lost-voters-ritchie-torres/680599/
Last night in Amsterdam, dozens of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans suffered a pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam, following the soccer team’s match against Ajax. According to most accounts, this ambush was planned and coordinated in advance.
And according to Israeli authorities, 10 Israelis were injured throughout the night, as mobs of antisemitic rioters ambushed, chased, and attacked the Israeli soccer fans. Dozens have been arrested, and the Israeli government dispatched planes to Amsterdam to return the Israeli fans safely to Israel. The Amsterdam police was observed to be largely ineffective in attempting to protect the Israeli fans from the assailants.
To unpack these disturbing events, and discuss the climate of antisemitism that has erupted in the Netherlands and across Europe, we are joined by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Omer Bigger.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, author, and a former Dutch member of Parliament. She is known for her outspoken criticism of Islam.
Ayaan has just launched a media platform called Courage.Media, which aims to amplify the voices of those who are showing great courage by standing up to the anti-western, anti-liberal, anti-democratic movements that are taking root in our media, our politics, our schools, and our communities.
Omer Bigger is an Israeli tech worker living in Amsterdam.
Ayaan’s piece on the pogrom in Amsterdam: https://courage.media/2024/11/08/the-pogrom-in-amsterdam/
To buy Ayaan’s books: https://tinyurl.com/pd34a9s8
Also discussed in this episode: “Pogrom 2024” John Podhoretz: https://www.commentary.org/john-podhoretz/pogrom-2024/
Last night in Israel, in what came as a shock to many Israelis, Prime Minister Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
At the same time, there was a Red Wave that swept through U.S. politics.
As Israelis and Americans simultaneously process these two 180 degree pivots in their respective political systems, we are joined by two CallMeBack regulars to discuss both stories:
Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
Amit Segal is the chief political correspondent and analyst for Channel 12 News, and for Yediot Ahronot, the country’s largest circulation newspaper.
With two days before the US presidential election, there is increasing (and surprising) speculation from within the Israeli security establishment about whether Iran will attack Israel in the days ahead. In today’s episode, we try to unpack what’s going on with Iran-Israel and also a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah. We also discuss our recent visit to an Ivy League university and what we learned from Jewish students there.
NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/-MGg6Oe5_7A
Micah Goodman is on the speed-dial of a number of Israeli political leaders – from Right to Left, but especially on the Center-Left and the Center-Right. And Micah has been synthesizing how Israelis view the war with Iran and the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Micah is a polymath, a podcaster and one of Israel’s most influential public intellectuals, having written books ranging from biblical lessons for the modern age to Israel’s geopolitics. Micah has a new book (in Hebrew), called ‘The Eighth Day’, in which Micah tries to understand the implications of the nation’s trauma and what it means for the other ‘day after’ (not the ‘day after’ in Gaza, but the ‘day after’ inside Israel).
Micah Goodman’s books in English: Catch-67 — https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/catch-67-micah-goodman/1128089735?ean=9780300248418
The Wondering Jew — https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wondering-jew-micah-goodman/1136574622?ean=9780300252248
WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE HERE: https://youtu.be/U0MWxuQG4fs
As we continue to assess the threat FROM Iran and the threat TO Iran, we sat down today with two analysts and former national security officials with different perspectives on what we’ve learned so far and next steps.
Richard Fontaine is CEO of the Center for American Security. He was formerly the top foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain, deputy staff director on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and an official of the U.S. State Department and National Security Council. He currently serves as a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board.
Rich Goldberg is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. From 2019-2020, he served as a Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council. He previously served as a national security staffer in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. Rich is an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve with military experience on the Joint Staff and in Afghanistan.
WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: youtu.be/ERj4GQ82wcw
LIVE EVENT ALERT – PITTSBURGH: On Monday October 28th at 6:00 PM, Dan will be speaking at a live event in conversation with Dave McCormick, combat veteran, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, and candidate for U.S. Senate. A West Point graduate, Dave was deployed to the Middle East during the first Gulf War with the 82nd Airborne Division. He later served as the Under Secretary of Treasury and Deputy National Security Advisor. Dave has distinguished himself as an outspoken ally of the Jewish community and of the U.S.-Israel relationship. In Pittsburg, Dan and Dave will have a conversation before a live audience and take questions. To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dan-senor-and-dave-mccormick-live-in-pittsburgh-tickets-1042361389977?aff=oddtdtcreator
TODAY’S EPISODE: To help us better understand what happened with Israel’s military operation against Iran, Nadav Eyal and Jonathan Schanzer join us for an emergency episode of the podcast.
NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
Dr. JONATHAN SCHANZER is senior vice president for research at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Jon previously worked as a terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he played an integral role in the designation of numerous terrorist financiers. Jonathan has studied Middle East history in four countries. He earned his PhD from King’s College London, where he wrote his dissertation on the U.S. Congress and its efforts to combat terrorism in the 20th century. He speaks Arabic and Hebrew.
CREDITS:
ILAN BENATAR - Producer and Editor
REBECCA STROM - Media Manager
MARTIN HUERGO - Editor
IDAN COHEN - Military Intelligence Research
WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUOKHUctWMs
LIVE EVENT ALERT – PITTSBURGH: On Monday October 28th at 6:00 PM, Dan will be speaking at a live event in conversation with Dave McCormick, combat veteran, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, and candidate for U.S. Senate. A West Point graduate, Dave was deployed to the Middle East during the first Gulf War with the 82nd Airborne Division. He later served as the Under Secretary of Treasury and Deputy National Security Advisor. Dave has distinguished himself as an outspoken ally of the Jewish community and of the U.S.-Israel relationship. In Pittsburg, Dan and Dave will have a conversation before a live audience and take questions. To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dan-senor-and-dave-mccormick-live-in-pittsburgh-tickets-1042361389977?aff=oddtdtcreator
SPECIAL SERIES: As we reflect upon one year since 10/07, we continue our dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this episode was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel.
For the sixth and final episode in our series, we sat down with Scott Galloway, who is a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business where he teaches Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing. He’s the host of the Prof G Podcast and the Pivot podcast, which he co-hosts with Kara Swisher. He is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, including “The Four”, “The Algebra of Happiness”, “Adrift: America in 100 Charts”, and most recently, “The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security.”
Scott has served on the board of directors of Eddie Bauer, The New York Times Company and the Berkeley School of Business.
Scott’s books: https://tinyurl.com/5f9uhpmz
Follow Scott at: ProfGMedia.com
LIVE EVENT ALERT – PITTSBURGH: On Monday October 28th at 6:00 PM, Dan will be speaking at a live event in conversation with Dave McCormick, combat veteran, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, and candidate for U.S. Senate. A West Point graduate, Dave was deployed to the Middle East during the first Gulf War with the 82nd Airborne Division. He later served as the Under Secretary of Treasury and Deputy National Security Advisor. Dave has distinguished himself as an outspoken ally of the Jewish community and of the U.S.-Israel relationship. In Pittsburg, Dan and Dave will have a conversation before a live audience and take questions. To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dan-senor-and-dave-mccormick-live-in-pittsburgh-tickets-1042361389977?aff=oddtdtcreator
TODAY’S EPISODE: The extraordinary success of the elimination of Yahya Sinwar has raised a number of questions about what happens next in the war. And among those asking questions is the community of families of Israeli hostages. In today’s episode, we sat down with two of those family members – Maya Roman and Gil Dickmann.
LIVE EVENT ALERT – PITTSBURGH: On Monday October 28th at 6:00 PM, Dan will be speaking at a live event in conversation with Dave McCormick, combat veteran, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, and candidate for U.S. Senate. A West Point graduate, Dave was deployed to the Middle East during the first Gulf War with the 82nd Airborne Division. He later served as the Under Secretary of Treasury and Deputy National Security Advisor. Dave has distinguished himself as an outspoken ally of the Jewish community and of the U.S.-Israel relationship. In Pittsburg, Dan and Dave will have a conversation before a live audience and take questions. To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dan-senor-and-dave-mccormick-live-in-pittsburgh-tickets-1042361389977?aff=oddtdtcreator
TODAY’S EPISODE: As Israelis continue to welcome the news of the elimination of Yahya Sinwar by IDF soldiers – and the implications – we are reminded that we have been spending a lot of time on this podcast over the past several months hearing about the impressive feats of Israel’s elite commandos, special forces and intelligence units.
But the soldiers who successfully took down Sinwar, were none of those…they were, simply, regular armored forces. Boots on the ground and tanks, with no early intelligence.
Behind the events that shape some of the most dazzling headlines these past couple months, are the soldiers and reservists you rarely hear about. They are, in short, the people who make up…the People’s Army. We want to put a spotlight on these regular soldiers and reservists who - day in, day out - do extraordinary things.
Tonight we are releasing a conversation we taped in July with Dr. Tuvia Book. Tuvia was born in London, and raised in both the UK and South Africa. After making Aliyah at the age of 17, and studying in Yeshiva, he volunteered for the IDF where he served in a combat unit.
Tuvia has been working in the field of Jewish Education, both formal and informal, for many years.
He is the author (and illustrator) of the internationally acclaimed Israel education curriculum; For the Sake of Zion; A Curriculum of Israel Studies (https://tinyurl.com/3anhrhw9) and Moral Dilemmas of the Modern Israeli Soldier (Rama, 2011) and Jewish Journeys (https://tinyurl.com/bmkj4wa2)
Yahya Sinwar is dead. To help us better understand what happened in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the reaction in Israeli society, and what is likely to happen next in Gaza and in Israel, Nadav Eyal and Haviv Rettig Gur join us for an emergency episode of the podcast.
NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
Haviv is the senior political analyst at The Times of Israel. He was a long time reporter for the Times of Israel. He’s also working on a book. Haviv was a combat medic in the IDF where he served in the reserves.
In recent days, the Biden-Harris administration has announced it would deploy the THAAD system to Israel — THAAD is an advanced missile defense system that can thwart short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, as well as the U.S. military personnel to operate it.
At the same time, the Biden-Harris administration has issued a blistering letter to Israel’s government threatening to withhold military resources at the time that Israel is planning its response to the October 1st Iranian attack (here’s a copy of the letter: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25212303-bqshvt-hmmshl-hamryqny-bhqshrym-hvmnytrym ).
To help us understand what is going on with U.S. policy, Rich Goldberg returns to the podcast. Rich is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. From 2019-2020, he served as a Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council. He previously served as a national security staffer in the US Senate and US House. Rich is an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve with military experience on the Joint Staff and in Afghanistan.
Recent pieces by Rich:
“Israel’s Victory Will Be a Success for American Grand Strategy”: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2024/10/04/israels-victory-will-be-a-success-for-american-grand-strategy/
“Turn-Key Alternatives to Replace UNRWA Immediately”: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/05/06/turn-key-alternatives-to-replace-unrwa-immediately/
WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/2yK4Ag_Ca2g
As we have just passed the grim one-year anniversary of 10/07, we continue our dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this episode was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel.
For the fifth installment of this special series, we sat down with Dr. Tal Becker, who serves as Vice President and Senior Faculty of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Tal was the former Legal Adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a veteran member of successive Israeli peace negotiation teams and, most recently, represented Israel before the International Court of Justice and played an instrumental role in negotiating and drafting the historic peace and normalization agreements (the "Abraham Accords"). Tal earned his doctorate from Columbia University in New York City, and is the recipient of numerous scholarly awards, including the Rabin Peace Prize, and the Guggenheim Prize for best international law book for his book "Terrorism and the State".
Finally, we have received a number of requests for recommendations of organizations in Israel to donate to around this one-year anniversary of 10/07. There are so many organizations doing important work to help Israelis rebuild from the events of the last year — and the ongoing war. This list is by no means comprehensive. It is simply an opportunity to highlight four groups whose work has moved us and who deserve additional support (we will add additional recommendations in the days ahead):
-IDF Widows & Orphans Organization (IDFWO), an Israeli non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the spouses and children of Israel's fallen heroes. They provide emotional care, financial assistance, educational opportunities, and a community for those affected most by Israel’s wars. — https://www.idfwo.org/en/
-Since October 8, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, anti-tank missiles, and explosive UAVs at Israeli civilian and military targets in the north. As worries mount, Rambam Medical Center has cared for the wounded and prepared for war. This 1,100-bed medical center in Haifa has transferred its critical medical care to an underground emergency hospital. Rambam’s underground hospital – capable of housing 8,000 people — will play a critical role going forward in treating wounded soldiers and civilians; protecting and caring for the needs of medical staff and their families; and protecting and caring for the residents of Israel’s Northern Region. — https://aforam.org/
-Leket Israel, Israel's largest food rescue operation, is committed to leading the safe, effective and efficient collection and distribution of surplus nutritious food in Israel to those who need it. To pick just one inspiring example: since October 7th, Leket has committed itself to providing healthy food to the 250,000 displaced Israelis, many of whom have been residing in hotels for the last year. Leket has installed produce stands in hotels across Israel, providing evacuees with a consistent supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, free of charge, which Leket purchases from struggling Israeli growers. — https://www.leket.org/en/
-Kav L'noar's therapy services have provided essential psychological support to communities in the South directly impacted by the war and the October 7th massacre. Their therapeutic interventions are tailored to address the unique emotional and psychological challenges faced by individuals affected by the war, empowering survivors to navigate the aftermath, rebuild resilience, and foster a sense of collective strength. — https://www.kavlnoar.org/israelatwar
This past Monday marked the grim one-year anniversary of October 7th. Around the world, Jewish communities gathered to memorialize a war still being fought.
How did Israeli society experience this grief, and how did Diaspora communities memorialize? What are Israelis going through that we might not be able to see from a distance? And what are Diaspora communities going through that Israelis may not see?
To discuss, we are joined by Matti Friedman, who is one of the most thoughtful writers when it comes to all matters related to Israel, the broader Middle East, and also trends in the world of journalism. He is a columnist for The Free Press: https://www.thefp.com/
Matti’s most recent book is called “Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.” Before that he published "Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel," and before that "Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War.” Matti’s army service included tours in Lebanon. His work as a reporter has taken him from Israel to Lebanon, and other hotspots across the Middle East and around the world. He is a former Associated Press correspondent and essayist for the New York Times opinion section.
Matti’s book referenced in the episode: “Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War” — https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pumpkinflowers-matti-friedman/1122279367?ean=9781616206918
WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/DfZZbwMuSe0
As we arrive at the grim one-year anniversary of 10/07, we are featuring a dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this episode was filmed before a live audience and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel.
For the fourth installment of this special series, we sat down with Amir Tibon, who is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz and the author of the newly released book: “The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands.” You can order Amir’s new book here: https://tinyurl.com/4khzaxab
Amir is also the author of“The Last Palestinian: The Rise and Reign of Mahmoud Abbas” (co-authored with Grant Rumley), the first-ever biography of the president of the Palestinian Authority.
From 2017-2020, Amir was based in Washington, DC as a foreign correspondent for Haaretz, and he also has served as a senior editor for the newspaper’s English edition. He, his wife, and their two young daughters are former residents of Kibbutz Nahal Oz but are currently living as internal refugees in northern Israel. His book tells the harrowing story of his family’s experience on October 7th as well as the history of Israel’s Gaza Envelope communities and of the Gaza Strip.
Finally, we have received a number of requests for recommendations of organizations in Israel to donate to on this one-year anniversary of 10/07. There are so many organizations doing important work to help Israelis rebuild from the events of the last year — and the ongoing war. This list is by no means comprehensive. It is simply an opportunity to highlight four groups whose work has moved us and who deserve additional support (we will add additional recommendations in the days ahead):
-IDF Widows & Orphans Organization (IDFWO), an Israeli non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the spouses and children of Israel's fallen heroes. They provide emotional care, financial assistance, educational opportunities, and a community for those affected most by Israel’s wars. — https://www.idfwo.org/en/
-Since October 8, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, anti-tank missiles, and explosive UAVs at Israeli civilian and military targets in the north. As worries mount, Rambam Medical Center has cared for the wounded and prepared for war. This 1,100-bed medical center in Haifa has transferred its critical medical care to an underground emergency hospital. Rambam’s underground hospital – capable of housing 8,000 people — will play a critical role going forward in treating wounded soldiers and civilians; protecting and caring for the needs of medical staff and their families; and protecting and caring for the residents of Israel’s Northern Region. — https://aforam.org/
-Leket Israel, Israel's largest food rescue operation, is committed to leading the safe, effective and efficient collection and distribution of surplus nutritious food in Israel to those who need it. To pick just one inspiring example: since October 7th, Leket has committed itself to providing healthy food to the 250,000 displaced Israelis, many of whom have been residing in hotels for the last year. Leket has installed produce stands in hotels across Israel, providing evacuees with a consistent supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, free of charge, which Leket purchases from struggling Israeli growers. — https://www.leket.org/en/
-Kav L'noar's therapy services have provided essential psychological support to communities in the South directly impacted by the war and the October 7th massacre. Their therapeutic interventions are tailored to address the unique emotional and psychological challenges faced by individuals affected by the war, empowering survivors to navigate the aftermath, rebuild resilience, and foster a sense of collective strength. — https://www.kavlnoar.org/israelatwar
The past couple days have seen some of the most fast-moving and potentially region-altering events since the 10/07 War broke out. To help us better understand what has happened and where events are likely heading, we are joined by:
NADAV EYAL — a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
MATTHEW LEVITT — the director of the Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Matt served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He later served as a counterterrorism advisor to the special envoy for Middle East regional security. Previously, Matt was a counterterrorism intelligence analyst at the FBI.
To help us better understand the dramatic developments in Lebanon, Nadav Eyal joined us for an emergency episode of the podcast.
NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
TODAY'S EPISODE: To help us better understand the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah, Nadav Eyal joined us for an emergency episode of the podcast.
NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKPqu3CUtg
UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
SPECIAL SERIES:
As we approach the grim one-year anniversary of 10/07, we are featuring a dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this series was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel.
For the third installment of this special series, we sat down with Yossi Klein Halevi, who is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Yossi has written a number of books, including his latest, "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor," which was a New York Times bestseller. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Times of Israel. He is co-host of "For Heaven's Sake" podcast.
Yossi Klein Halevi's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IXOA04
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
03:10 Reaction to October 7th
11:57 Where did we anticipate we would be a year from October 7th?
14:30 Where is the war heading?
21:29 Israeli Politics
29:00 Defending Israel from abroad
32:12 Can those in the diaspora both defend and criticize Israel?
37:00 The hostage dilemma
44:00 Global opinion of the conflict
49:42 Tension between power and victimhood
52:49 The lasting legacy of this past year
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/mwhxcdja
UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
To help us better understand events in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, Nadav Eyal joined us for an emergency episode of the podcast.
NADAV EYAL is a columnist Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
WATCH THE FULL CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNugi2XnhmI
UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
SPECIAL SERIES:
As we approach the grim one-year anniversary of 10/07, we are featuring a dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this series was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNugi2XnhmI
For the second installment of this special series, we sat down with Sam Harris – philosopher, neuroscientist, bestselling author and podcaster.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:18 Sam’s experience of October 7th
05:44 Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields
09:07 Should Israel risk Israeli lives?
12:15 Response to sympathy towards Palestinians
19:43: Hamas knew exactly who they were targeting
22:00 Jihadist mentality
32:57 The hostage dilemma
38:29: American Anti-Israel protests
45:13 Antisemitism and anti zionism
01:01:28 Antisemitism on the left
01:04:47 Connection to Jewish identity post-October 7th
Episodes of Sam Harris’s “Making Sense” podcast, as referenced in this conversation:
“Why Don’t I Criticize Israel?”:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2-why-dont-i-criticize-israel/id733163012?i=1000316926199
"The Bright Line Between Good and Evil":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFBm8nQ2aBo
To subscribe to Sam Harris’s podcast, Making Sense: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts
To register for Sam Harris’s substack: https://samharris.substack.com/
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/5n8kcm5m
Watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7F7Pq-XI40&t=2914s
Visit our website: https://arkmedia.org/
UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS:
If you are interested in our upcoming Call Me Back live events, you can find further registration details here:
PHILADELPHIA-AREA — September 9 — Join us this Monday night in Lower Merion, just outside of Philadelphia, for a discussion about Israel, the Middle East and the U.S.-Israel relationship with combat veteran and national security expert Dave McCormick, who is running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. To register, please go to: Dan-and-Dave.eventbrite.com
NEW YORK CITY — September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, co-sponsored by UJA Federation of NY, and featuring Amir Tibon on the official launch date of his book The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel's Borderlands. To register, please go to: streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
NEW EPISODE / NEW SERIES
Since October 7th, on this podcast we have tried to present Israel’s dilemmas and challenges as Israel responded to a genocidal attack from Gaza and what is now a multi-front war. We have tried to do this by talking to Israelis – Israeli journalists, political figures, historians and other thought leaders, and different people from Israel’s civil society. We have tried to provide historical context and perspectives from various actors in the U.S.-Israel relationship from both sides of that relationship.
We did not think we would still be recording these episodes – with this focus – for one year. And yet, here we are — approaching the one-year anniversary of October 7, which will be regarded as one of the darkest days in Jewish history (and one of the darkest days in the history of Western Civilization).
Most of our episodes have been shaped by weekly and daily news developments. But as we approach the one-year anniversary, we wanted to take a step back, and spend extended time with a few of our previous guests and thought leaders who are not our go-to analysts.
We asked each one of them to take a longer horizon perspective, to look back at this past year and the year ahead. In each conversation, we will try to understand the larger lessons these guests have learned as we approach this grim milestone. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this series was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel. You can find a link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7F7Pq-XI40&t=2914s
We begin this series with a conversation with Douglas Murray – war journalist, columnist, and bestselling author. We will be dropping one of these long-form conversations with a different guest each week between now and the first couple weeks after 10/07.
On Sunday, September 8, Douglas Murray will kick off his first ever US Tour with Live Nation. Long before Oct 7, Douglas was a widely read journalist, bestselling author, and one of the most prescient intellectuals in the world. Since Oct 7, he has also become one of the strongest voices for Israel and the Jewish people. Douglas will be sharing experiences from his time in Israel post October 7, including never before seen footage from his time in Israel. Tickets can be purchased through Live Nation’s website: https://www.livenation.com/artist/K8vZ917blC7/douglas-murray-events
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/yc2pck68 In recent days, there has been intensifying debate inside Israel over whether the security concerns raised by Prime Minister Netanyahu (regarding the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border) are legitimate or just sand being thrown in the gears of the hostage negotiations? Are there actual substantive objections to the concerns the Prime Minister is raising, or are the concerns really just with Netanyahu himself? Is the problem the message? Or the messenger? We are joined by Amit Segal. He is the chief political correspondent and analyst for Channel 12 News, and for Yediot Ahronot, the country’s largest circulation newspaper. NADAV EYAL who is a columnist Yediiot. Eyal is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news. Amit and Nadav often debate in Hebrew on Israeli television…this is the first time they are debating like this in English, and they wound up debating a number of other – more raw – issues that cut to some of the divisions in Israeli society today over the war. I learned a lot from both of them.Register for the September 24th Call me Back Live at the Streicker Center in New York with special guest Amir Tibon: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
Over the past 24 hours we learned the devastating news about Hamas’s slaughtering of 6 hostages. The families of two of these hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Carmel Gat had been guests on this podcast over the past few months. The news of these executions followed news in Israel last Thursday of a heated debate within the security cabinet over a clause that the prime minister had introduced – to be voted on – into the negotiations over any final deal. Some critics are arguing that the introduction of that clause was part of a pattern that doomed the negotiations. Last night, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to protest – among other things – these moves by Israel’s Government. Others inside Israel are arguing that the principles that the Prime Minister is establishing in these negotiations are necessary conditions for Israel to defeat Hamas and prevent another October 7th-like war being launched (at least from Gaza).This is the debate happening inside Israel right now. To better understand each of these positions we had a conversation on Sunday morning with Haviv Rettig Gur from the Time of Israel from Jersuaelm. But before we listen to the conversation with Haviv, we want to play for you a conversation I had late at night Israel time on Sunday night, with Wendy Singer, a Jersusalemite who is part of the Goldberg-Polins' community in Baka, their neighborhood in Jerusalem. In the days ahead, we’ll hear from others connected to those six hostages murdered. Wendy Singer is an advisor to several Israeli high-tech start-ups, including Re-Milk — https://www.remilk.com/ Wendy was the executive director of Start-Up Nation Central since its founding in 2013 — https://startupnationcentral.org/ Previously, she was the director of AIPAC’s Israel office for 16 years and served in AIPAC’s Washington office before immigrating to Israel in 1994. Earlier in her career, Wendy was a foreign policy advisor in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.Haviv Rettig Gur is the political analyst at The Times of Israel. He was a long time reporter for the Times of Israel. Haviv was also a combat medic in the IDF where he served in the reserves.
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/yc4a9uvh Our interests in the Indo-Pacific, Russia-Ukraine, and the Middle East are all interconnected. A regional war in one, could easily trip into a regional war in another — and in some cases actors in one region are already being supported by regional actors from another. Just follow the moves of Beijing, Moscow and Tehran.Rahm Emanuel has been an energetic diplomat in one of those regions — the Indo-Pacific. He is the U.S. ambassador to Japan. In addition to being a diplomatic and policy practitioner, he has also been an often astute — and sometimes provocative — analyst of the Chinese Government and its moves. Rahm also has deep roots in American Jewish life and with Israel. He has a lot to say about the lessons he took away from serving in the Clinton administration, where he was involved in President Clinton’s efforts at a two-state solution during the Oslo and Camp David processes. Rahm also served 4 terms in Congress, where he was a member of the House Democratic Leadership. He was President Obama’s chief of staff for the first two years of the Obama administration, before returning to Chicago to run for mayor, where he served for two terms. To read Rahm’s piece mentioned in the episode: https://japan-forward.com/lessons-from-israel-timely-for-japan/ Follow Rahm on X: https://x.com/USAmbJapan Register for Call me Back Live at the Streicker Center: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/bdd5bvp8 Early this morning, after detecting preparations by Hezbollah to launch a large-scale attack, Israel launched a powerful preemptive strike on southern Lebanon. Hours after these events took place, I was joined by Nadav Eyal and Ronen Bergman to make sense of what has taken place, and to discuss possible scenarios moving forward. Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli daily. Ronen recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on this war and the pre-war intelligence failures. Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediot. He has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/p5dfbxxw As Israelis continue to brace for a kinetic strike from Iran, or Hezbollah, or both, this long-anticipated attack may have been put on hold by Tehran while Israel and Hamas were negotiating the last details of a hostage and temporary ceasefire deal. Now, as we learn today from our guest Nadav Eyal, that deal appears to be slipping away.Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediot. He has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.Register for Call me Back Live at the Streicker Center in New York: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/bdze4khv Mark Dubowitz reports from Tel Aviv after over a month in Israel discussing Israel’s emerging (and bolder) approach to Iran. Mark is the CEO of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD). In his role, he has advised the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and he has testified more than twenty times before the U.S. Congress and foreign legislatures.A former venture capitalist and technology executive, Mark holds a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.To read Mark’s recent piece in the Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/israels-approach-to-iran-may-be-getting-bolder-f4c2c5f2?st=26ve823zvaeilzf&reflink=article_copyURL_share FDD’s Iranian Protest Tracker Map: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/01/27/mapping-the-protests-in-iran-2/ Register for Call me Back Live at the Streicker Center in New York: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
Israelis are stuck in a tense holding pattern, each day waiting for a response from Iran, or Hezbollah, or both - an attack that was expected to occur last week, then later forecasted to occur over Tisha B’Av. And yet, each day… nothing. What is going on — in Tehran? In Jerusalem? And in Washington D.C.? At the same time, there is a similar pattern in the hostage negotiations. Today, senior officials from Israel, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt met in Doha to resume negotiations for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal - talks, as we are learning, that will continue into tomorrow.Israel seems to be on the brink of major developments - and yet, Israelis are left questioning: when will they occur? And against that backdrop: is Israel on offense, or is Israel on defense? To help us assess all of this from a broader strategic perspective, our guest is Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, who is senior vice president for research at Foundation for Defense of Democracies.Jon previously worked as a terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he played an integral role in the designation of numerous terrorist financiers. Jon's latest book is "Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War". His other books include: "State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State", and "Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine". Jonathan has studied Middle East history in four countries. He earned his PhD from King’s College London, where he wrote his dissertation on the U.S. Congress and its efforts to combat terrorism in the 20th century. He speaks Arabic and Hebrew.To watch the FDD Morning Brief, hosted by Jon: https://www.fdd.org/fddmorningbrief/ Register for Call me Back Live at the Streicker Center in New York: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/2awmrwwr Against the backdrop of a possible Iran/Hezbollah attack, as well as international criticism of an IDF operation in Gaza City, there have been new developments in the hostage negotiations. This past Thursday, a multi-party statement was issued by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, declaring that the framework of a hostage deal was nearly complete, and urging Israel and Hamas to finalize the deal without further delay. Soon after, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office issued a statement that Israel would send its team to the now scheduled August 15th negotiations. Hamas had indicated its intention to participate as well. Now, suddenly, Hamas is reversing its decision. Although, at least according to some sources, this reversal may be last minute posturing by Hamas. Either way, the sudden acceleration of the process does make this dynamic seem different from previous rounds. To discuss all of these issues, we are joined by Call me Back regulars: -Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediot. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news. -Haviv Rettig Gur has been a regular presence on this podcast since October 8. He is a senior political analyst for the Times of Israel, and has been an important interpreter for Western audiences of how to understand this conflict in broader historical terms. To register for Call me Back Live featuring Amir Tibon at the Streicker Center: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senorTo visit our website: https://arkmedia.org/
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/56nzhy97 HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: I’m pleased to announce a major live recording of Call Me Back in New York City on September 24th. The event will be held at the Streicker Center, co-sponsored by UJA Federation of NY, and my guest will be Amir Tibon on the official launch date of his book The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel's Borderlands.In his new book, Amir tells the gripping story of the Tibon family’s ordeal at Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7 and the heroic rescue by Amir’s father, retired General Noam Tibon. Woven throughout the book is Amir’s own expertise as a longtime journalist in Israel and in Washington, the history of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and the conflict between Israel and Gaza.The story has previously been featured on 60 Minutes and it is also being developed in a feature film by Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz.We are excited to bring this program – with our partners at The Streicker Center and UJA Federation of NY – to the Call Me Back audience. To register, please go to streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senorTODAY’S EPISODE:Tensions have been high in Israel over the past week, as Israelis brace for a response from Iran and Hezbollah, following last week’s assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Fuad Shukr in Lebanon. This attack was anticipated to have already taken place, and may happen at any moment. To help us understand the extent to which Israel and the U.S. have prepared for this new phase, we are joined by Nadav Eyal and Matt Levitt. Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediot. He has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.Dr. Matthew Levitt is the director of the Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. During his tenure at Treasury, he played a central role in efforts to protect the U.S. financial system from abuse and to deny terrorists, weapons proliferators, and other rogue actors the ability to finance threats to U.S. national security. He later served as a counterterrorism advisor to the special envoy for Middle East regional security. Previously, Matt was a counterterrorism intelligence analyst at the FBI, where he provided tactical and strategic analytical support for counterterrorism operations, focusing on fundraising and logistical support networks for Middle Eastern terrorist groups. He is the author of several books and monographs, including Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad (Yale University Press, 2006), and Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God (Georgetown University Press, 2013). He is the host of the podcast series, Breaking Hezbollah's Golden Rule. Matt Levitt’s Books: Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hezbollah-matthew-levitt/1114960198?ean=9781626162013Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/negotiating-under-fire-matthew-levitt/1100301395?ean=9780742551626
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/2twexkc9 Is the region ready for an Israel-Iran war? Is the U.S. ready? What is the state of readiness of the IDF for such a war? Is Israeli society ready for such a war?Could such a war be avoided? What would de-escalation look like? Most Israelis we have spoken to over the past few days have struck a balance between (tensely) trying to anticipate Iran’s next move and expressing confidence in Israel’s capacity for this new phase. One of those Israelis joins us for this episode. Haviv Rettig Gur of the the Times of Israel returns to the podcast.
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/3x9wjkv9 Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the political wing of Hamas, is dead. He was killed in Tehran yesterday, during a visit for the inauguration of Iran’s new president.To help us understand this major development, I am joined by Ronen Bergman and Nadav Eyal for a special emergency episode. Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli daily. Ronen recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on this war and the pre-war intelligence failures. Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediot. He has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
This past weekend we saw a major and brazen escalation against Israel by Hezbollah. This war front is not new, but it will now come into much sharper focus. And with the slaughter of Druze children, we have received a number of questions about Israel’s Druze community in Israel’s North, as well as questions about the options for Israeli decision-makers now.To help us unpack all of this, we are joined by Matti Friedman, who is one of the most thoughtful writers when it comes to all matters related to Israel, the broader Middle East, and also trends in the world of journalism. He is a columnist for The Free Press: https://www.thefp.com/Matti’s most recent book is called “Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.” Before that he published "Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel," and before that "Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War.” Matti’s army service included tours in Lebanon. His work as a reporter has taken him from Israel to Lebanon, and other hotspots across the Middle East and around the world. He is a former Associated Press correspondent and essayist for the New York Times opinion section.Matti Friedman's published works that are relevant to this episode: -“The Wisdom of Hamas” — The Free Press — https://www.thefp.com/p/matti-friedman-the-wisdom-of-hamas -“What if the Real War in Israel Hasn’t Even Started?” — The Free Press — https://www.thefp.com/p/matti-friedman-israel-hezbollah-war -"There Is No 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict'" -- The New York Times -- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/opinion/israeli-palestinian-conflict-matti-friedman.htm -"An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth" -- Tablet Magazine -- https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-insider-guide -"What The Media Gets Wrong About Israel" -- The Atlantic -- https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/ -“Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War” — https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pumpkinflowers-matti-friedman/1122279367?ean=9781616206918
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/4xb5bu7r Fresh off viewing Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address before a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, Nadav Eyal sits down for an analysis as we debate the impact of Netanyahu’s speech in Israel, in the U.S., on the hostage negotiations, and on Israel’s geopolitics.Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediot. He has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/3rwv5yzu A lot has happened over this past weekend, again. President Biden has dropped out of the presidential race, endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris, who has been systematically locking up endorsements from most of her possible opponents. The ascendancy of V.P. Harris occurs at the exact time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington in advance of his address before Congress on Wednesday. We will discuss all of these issues in our next episode later this week. Also this weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to bring Israel back to the negotiating table this week for a hostages-for-ceasefire deal in Gaza, ahead of his departure to the U.S. This comes despite a letter from eight Likud MKs objecting to the possible deal.Finally, and the topic of our conversation today - on Saturday at 3:30 AM Israel time, a drone packed with explosives flew into a building in Tel Aviv, a few blocks away from the American consulate, and caused a large explosion that claimed the life of an Israeli citizen. This drone flew more than 2000 km (about 1200 miles) all the way from Yemen, and was one of four drones sent by the Houthis. The other three were shot down by U.S. forces in the Red Sea. Later on Saturday, Israel retaliated by attacking the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah, in Yemen. The targets of the attack were oil installations and refineries, the Ras Katib power plant, the HQ of the Yemen Economic Corporation, as well as the national security and military police buildings in the north of Hodeidah. The attack caused a complete power outage in all the neighborhoods in Hodeida district and disruptions in the communication network. This port was the main import access point for weapons into Yemen for the Houthis. While this low intensity war with the Houthis has been ongoing since October 7th, we have not focused much of our attention to this third Iranian tentacle. Who are the Houthis? How did Iran turn this rebel group into its proxy? And what could we expect from this third front?To make sense of all of this, we have Ronen Bergman of Yediot Ahranot and the New York Times Magazine. Ronen is a pulitzer-prize winning journalist.Also, one housekeeping note:Since October 7th, we are frequently asked for ways to ask questions, send comments and episode ideas. Listeners are also often asking for transcripts of our podcasts episodes. And many of you also want to know if there’s a way to subscribe for podcast updates. We are in the process of building a website, Ark Media. To visit the website, go to ArkMedia.Org,By visiting the website, you can:- Get in touch with the Call me Back team and share your thoughts, questions, or suggestions. - Access full transcripts to each episode, including links to external resources that will expand your understanding of the topics covered in each conversation. - And sign up for our regular updates on new episodes and live events.
Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/mr2sejpr Prime Minister Netanyahu prepares to arrive in Washington, DC next week for an address to a joint session of Congress (his 4th), a meeting with President Biden (covid-permitting), all against the backdrop of the negotiations over hostages and a temporary (or phased) ceasefire.To help us understand what is going on the eve of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit, to preview what the Prime Minister hopes to get out of the visit, and the stakes for the visit (and also the future of the political Right in Israel), we are joined by Amit Segal. He is the chief political correspondent and analyst for Channel 12 News, and for Yediot Achronot, the country’s largest circulation newspaper. In his military service, he worked as a media and parliamentary correspondent for IDF (military) Radio.
Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/5dw43272 Who is Mohammed Deif?Why does he matter (or why did he matter?)Is he dead?We have often said on this podcast that Hamas long ago transformed from a ragtag militia to the equivalent of a light infantry army of a sovereign state. The architect of that transformation was Mohammed Deif. If Hamas was a terror army, its commanding general or army chief of staff was Mohammed Deif. The second intifada? Deif was central to its planning and execution. Its tunnel system and rocket arsenal? All that, too, was Deif. And October 7th? Mohammed Deif. Israel had been on the hunt for Deif long before October 7th. In fact, he had escaped at least seven assasination attempts going back to 2001.Today he is most likely dead, based on an extraordinary intelligence and military operation that took place on Saturday morning.To help us understand what Hamas is, today, without Mohammed Deif, and what it means for Israel’s war against Hamas – and for the hostage and ceasefire negotiations – we are joined by Ronen Bergman, who is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli daily. Ronen recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on this war and the pre-war intelligence failures. He has published numerous books —including “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” and also “The Secret War with Iran."Ronen is also a member of the Israeli bar (he clerked in the Attorney General’s Office), and has a master’s degree in international relations and a Ph.D. in history from Cambridge University.
Today we sit down with one of the most interesting figures in Israeli public life, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who served as Israel’s 13th Prime Minister (2021-22), and previously, in a Netanyahu-led government as Defense Minister (2019-20), and earlier on as Economy Minister. When he himself was prime minister, Naftali Bennett's government was comprised of 8 political parties from across the ideological spectrum - from his own Yamina Party and the New Hope party on the Right, through Yair Lapid’s party in the center, to the Labor and Meretz parties on the Left. And then – for the first time in an Israeli Government – there was the Arab Muslim party, Ra’am. In his business career, Prime Minister Bennett was a successful start-up entrepreneur. And he served in Israel’s elite Sayaret Mechtel special forces. In this long-form interview, we try to better understand Naftali Bennett's worldview on a range of issues in Israel’s post-10/07 reality – its strategic situation as it faces multiple war fronts or possible war fronts, and we wanted to better understand his vision for addressing the growing internal Israeli tensions – within the Israeli public..
On October 7th, Hamas slaughtered, brutalized, wounded, and kidnapped numerous U.S. citizens. We think of 10/07 as a singular Israeli experience. But it was not. Americans were attacked too. There are even 8 U.S. citizens still being held hostage today by Hamas. It’s not clear what the U.S. Government is doing for these American victims and their families. What recourse do our fellow citizens have? Well, here’s one: the Anti-Defamation League has filed a lawsuit on behalf of more than 125 US citizens and their families who were killed or wounded in the kibbutzim in southern Israel and at the Nova music festival. The lawsuit accuses Iran, Syria and North Korea of providing material support to Hamas. The lawsuit lays out publicly available evidence of training, weapons and financial support from Iran; training and financing from Syria; and weapons and tunnel-digging assistance from North Korea. But where can this lawsuit actually go - what could it achieve?This is the focus of my conversation with Jonathan Greenblatt, who has been the CEO of the ADL since 2015. Prior to joining the ADL, he was a senior official in the Obama White House, and has had a long career in business and the non-profit sector before he joined the Obama administration.To learn more about the Anti-Defamation League, visit: https://www.adl.org/Find Jonathan on X here: https://x.com/JGreenblattADLAnd on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/jgreenblattadl/ADL on X: https://x.com/ADLADL on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adl_national/?hl=en
Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/vehsrjpx Before today’s conversation, one housekeeping note. We are announcing our second "Call Me Back Live" Event. I will be talking to creators of Fauda -- Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz. They are scripting OCTOBER 7th, a feature film on the heroic true story of Noam Tibon, who rescued his son Amir Tibon, a Haaretz journalist, and his young family, from Hamas terrorists who had invaded their home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Issacharoff is also is a war correspondent who has been embedded with the IDF in Gaza. The event is July 22 at 6pm in NYC at the Comedy Cellar. Part of the proceeds will be donated to Leket, Israel’s leading food rescue organization, which has played a critical role working with farmers and kibbutizm in the Gaza envelope since 10/07.To RSVP, please go to comedycellar.com, click the "lineups" button on the top left and select "July 22".Now onto today’s conversation. How close is Israel to reaching a hostage deal with Hamas and – with that – a temporary ceasefire that could possibly become a permanent ceasefire? And why does this negotiations process have direct implications for Israel’s Northern border, between Hezbollah and Israel? Could a Gaza ceasefire result in a de-escalation on Israel’s Northern border? To help us understand what’s going on here, we have two guests today:-Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediot. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news. -Haviv Rettig-Gur has been a regular presence on this podcast since October 8. He is a senior political analyst for the Times of Israel, and has been an important interpreter for Western audiences of how to understand this conflict in broader historical terms. Speech by Nadav Eyal discussed on this episode: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9IUmVwtRZV/?igsh=MW95bXpyZ2hhdm4xNA==
Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/2fpvh4mv In recent days, while we have all been consumed with the U.S. presidential debate, less international attention has been on Israel. But during this time, Israel’s security apparatus has proposed and advocated for a formal end to the war in Gaza. This is in part because the IDF is closer to achieving its military objectives in Gaza by having dismantled Hamas’s capabilities – and in part because they believe it’s the only way to get some calm on Israel’s northern border, at least for now. The security establishment argues that there is a connection between the two fronts. Whether or not the Government will accept and implement this proposal, is not yet clear. To help us understand what’s going on here, our guest today is NADAV EYAL, who returns to the podcast. He is a columnist for Yediot. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/25du5vv4 In today’s episode we unpack what has actually happened in American politics (up and down the ballot) since the presidential debate, we explore Biden’s options (which are not binary), what it tells us about public service in America, and how allies and adversaries abroad might be watching these events unfold. Mike Murphy has worked on 26 GOP gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country, including 12 wins in Blue States. He was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He’s co-host of the critically acclaimed "Hacks on Tap" podcast. Mike is also co-director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future. He’s also the CEO of the EV Politics Project (evpolitics.org).Find Mike’s podcast, Hacks on Tap, here: https://www.hacksontap.com/ Published pieces we discuss in this episode:“This Isn’t All Joe Biden’s Fault” by Ezra Klein, THE NEW YORK TIMES: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/30/opinion/biden-debate-convention.html“Biden Goes Global” by Seth Mandel, COMMENTARY MAGAZINE: https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/biden-panic-goes-global/“Biden's Presidential Debate Fiasco May Tempt U.S. Foes in the Mideast to Test His Resolve” by Amos Harel, HAARETZ: https://tinyurl.com/3f5kyu5f
Since October 7th, many of us have had uncomfortable conversations we could never have imagined having. October 7th sparked debates and discussions that got very awkward very quickly. But what’s unique about our guests today is that they were having these conversations prior to October 7th. Not only were they having these conversations, they were working on a book that chronicled these difficult conversations. Their book is called “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew”. It’s by Noa Tishby and Emmanuel Acho. Emmanuel is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the host and producer of an online series called "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man". Emmanuel was nominated for an emmy award for this series. He’s also a 2021 Sports Emmy winner, a Fox Sports Analyst. And, perhaps most importantly, Emmanuel is a former NFL linebacker.Noa Tishby is the New York Times bestselling author of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. A native of Tel Aviv, she served in the Israeli army before moving to Los Angeles and launching a career in the entertainment industry. An award-winning producer, Tishby made history with the sale of In Treatment to HBO, the first Israeli television show to become an American series. She has had an extraordinary career in Israeli television and film.To order their book: Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/4k3uv8avB&N - https://tinyurl.com/mv2xfxsp
Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/yvesakat One of the questions we repeatedly get from you, our listeners, is - "Where was the IDF on October 7th?" It's a topic that we have strenuously avoided. After the war, there will be a formal commission of inquiry that attempts to understand all that went wrong and why. There will be a time and a place for that.And yet, as the war in Gaza winds down, and as Israel prepares for another possible war, this question re-emerges. What lessons can be learned? More and more journalists in Israel are exploring the topic. So, we are going to dedicate an episode from time to time in the weeks ahead to try to understand what these journalists are learning. Our only caveat is that this is a difficult topic to explore - for all the obvious reasons. The information is uneven... there is still an element of fog of war.When I was in Israel last week, I visited Ronen Bergman in his home in Ramat HaSharon, to have a long conversation about what he has pieced together. Ronen is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli daily. Ronen recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on this war and the pre-war intelligence failures. He has published numerous books, including:“Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations” - https://tinyurl.com/mwbmchajAnd also, “The Secret War with Iran" - https://tinyurl.com/2p8sh9uRonen is also a member of the Israeli bar (he clerked in the Attorney General’s Office), and has a master’s degree in international relations, as well as a Ph.D. in history from Cambridge University.Read Ronen's piece in The New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html
Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/yc8jb3m6Is now the time for Israeli decision-makers to begin serious internal deliberations and planning for the “day after” in Gaza? According to Nadav Eyal in his column last Friday in Yediot, over 95% of Hamas rockets are gone, Hamas’s smuggling routes have been closed, and its munitions production capacity is zero. Is progress in defeating Hamas appears much better than one would think from reading popular press accounts?It’s against that backdrop that we’ve learned of a 28-page document -- this is not publica -- and is circulating among Israeli military leaders and war strategy decision-makers within the government. Some we spoke to suggested that this document is being treated as the basis for ‘day after’ planning in the government. It’s called: "From a murderous regime to a moderate society: the transformation and rehabilitation of Gaza after Hamas". The researchers are Prof. Netta Barak-Corren, a law professor who works on conflict resolution; Prof. Danny Orbach, a military historian; Dr. Nati Flamer who specializes in Hamas and Hezbollah; and Dr. Harel Chorev, an expert on Palestinian society.To help us understand these recommendations, we are joined today by one of its authors, Prof. Netta Barak-Corren, who is a legal scholar with degrees from the Hebrew University (where she is a professor). She clerked for the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, and then pursued doctoral studies at Harvard, graduating in 2016. She currently is on leave from Hebrew University, while she’s visiting faculty at Princeton. She’s previously taught at University of Pennsylvania and University of Chicago.
Share on X: https://rb.gy/un15s6Today in this special episode, we are releasing the first episode of the Call me Back podcast recorded before a very enthusiastic live audience at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan. Our guest was actor, director and comedian Michael Rapaport. The focus of our conversation is about how Michael became such an energetic, provocative, and hilarious voice on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people since 10/07, as well as his observations on why more Jews from the creative arts and entertainment industry have not been as outspoken as him (or, even worse, why so many have remained silent). We also discuss his reaction to those who criticize Israel “as a Jew”, and his experience dealing with the professional cost of proudly advocating for Israel and the Jewish people. You can follow Michael on X here: https://x.com/MichaelRapaportAnd on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/michaelrapaport/Find Michael's podcast, I AM RAPAPORT here: https://www.iamrapaport.com/
Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/3wt7crw4First, a housekeeping note: many of you filled out the survey we published in our previous episode, and we are very grateful for that. If you haven't filled out this 2-minute survey we would greatly appreciate it if you took 2 minutes to fill it out. It is extremely helpful to us in thinking through ways to improve the podcast and understand our audience. Please follow this link to the survey: https://forms.gle/nZh8ZRA5YjJxmdEW6As for today's episode - I've been in Israel for the past couple of days, for my 4th visit here since 10/07. Something that has struck me in my conversations with Israelis is the degree to which a war with Hezbollah is not discussed in terms of IF, but rather in terms of WHEN. And as for the WHEN, some are suggesting quite soon. In fact, Defense Minister Gallant said that the goal should be that for those Israelis evacuated from the North, they should be back in their evacuated communities and homes in time for the next school year. This would put to the test the IDF’s capacity to fight a multi front war. In other words - while the IDF is getting closer to the point of defeating Hamas in Gaza - it might also be at the early stages of a war with Hezbollah.To help us understand what’s going on here, our guest today is NADAV EYAL, who returns to the podcast. I sat down with him today in Tel Aviv. He is a columnist for Yediot. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news. Nadav's latest column, which we discussed in this episode: https://tinyurl.com/msk43n53
First, a housekeeping note: Over the past eight months the audience for this podcast has grown in ways we could never have imagined, but there is no real way for us to know who is listening - age group, ideological leanings, the country you are living in, etc. These are all very helpful data points for us to improve the podcast and understand our audience. So, please fill out this 2 minute survey: https://forms.gle/nZh8ZRA5YjJxmdEW6And one other item we wanted to bring to your attention. We are repeatedly reminded how the NYPD has continued to bravely protect our community— most recently 10 days ago at the Nova Music Festival exhibition where a mob of antisemitic rioters attempted to intimidate Jewish New Yorkers, and just before that when the NYPD helped ensure a smooth Israel Day Parade here in New York in which over 100,000 people participated. To express our thanks for helping to keep our Jewish community and all New Yorkers safe, The Paul E. Singer Foundation is matching donations up to $200,000 made to the New York City Police Foundation. Donations must be made Monday, June 24, 2024. Join us to meet and exceed this goal. If interested in donating, you can do it here: https://secure.anedot.com/nycpolicefoundation/thepesfoundationAs for today's episode, as we discussed at length in our last episode -- "Haviv Unplugged!" -- the issue of a military service exemption for Haredi Jews (ultra-Orthodox Jews) is coming to a head right now, as Israel is at war. Or maybe it's coming to a head with such ferocity precisely because Israel is at war, and it's raising all sorts of questions about whether Israel has the manpower to fight a continued war in Gaza and possibly other fronts that could open up. It does seem like Israel is in an entirely new military environment, across multiple fronts. Also, are some parts of the Israeli population paying a disproportionately high price?These are questions that are being considered right now by Israel's government. These are questions that are weighing especially heavy on society after 12 soldiers over the past few days. Dr. Micah Goodman is our guest today, to help us unpack all of this. Micah is on the speed-dial of a number of Israeli political leaders – from right to left, but especially on the center-left and the center-right. He is a polymath, a podcaster and one of Israel’s most influential public intellectuals, having written books ranging from biblical lessons for the modern age to Israel’s geopolitics. One book in particular, had an outsized impact in terms of its framing of the conundrum that Israel has been in with the Palestinians since 1967. That book is called "Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War", Not only have all of his books been bestsellers in Israel, he essentially created a new genre; books that bring core texts of Jewish thought to a general, secular audience. In his new book – called "The Eighth Day", which Micah wrote in a four-month sprint after October 7th – Micah tries to understand the implications of the nation’s trauma and what it means for the other ‘day after’ (not the ‘day after’ in Gaza, but the ‘day after’ inside Israel). What does this moment mean for Israelis? How will 10/07 re-shape Israeli society…and its politics? Micah Goodman’s books:Catch-67 — https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/catch-67-micah-goodman/1128089735?ean=9780300248418The Wondering Jew — https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wondering-jew-micah-goodman/1136574622?ean=9780300252248
Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/2s4x4j2hIn recent days, there have been a lot of war-related developments that have taken place in Israel and outside of Israel. So it was good that we had the opportunity to catch up with Haviv Rettig Gur as Shavuot came to a close in Israel. In this episode, we wound up having a spirited conversation about: I.The mood in Israel days after after Operation Arnon, and also why the day after the successful resuce operation we saw Benny Gantz's long anticipated exit from the unity government;II. The ultra orthodox or 'Haredi' IDF exemption bill that passed in the Knesset; andIII. Hamas's rejection (yet again) of Israel's ceasefire proposal.
Back in July, we dedicated an episode to the question of whether the U.S. was on the cusp of reaching a new deal with Iran. Or was an unofficial deal already hatched that nobody was talking about? According to Rich Goldberg, the answers to these questions are now becoming more clear. Rich has also been focused on another development that didn’t get sufficient press attention this summer: the...
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Kristen Soltis Anderson is a GOP pollster, messaging strategist, and Founding Partner of Echelon Insights, an opinion research and analytics firm that serves brands, trade associations, nonprofits, and political clients. Through her work at Echelon, she regularly advises corporate and government leaders. Kristen also leads focus groups for The New York Times’ opinion section “America in Focus”...
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Special episode with Dr. Fred Kagan on the Russia-Ukraine war (and Putin’s hold on power). Fred is the Director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also working closely with the Russia team at the Institute for the Study of War. Fred is a former professor of military history at the US Military Academy at West Point. He completed his PhD in Soviet and Russian...
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There is a lot these days to discuss with a US official who is an expert on China and has major influence over US-China policy. But today we take a longer view of the Cold War (II) we are in with China by looking at a historical comparison in Cold War I. Congressman Gallagher just wrapped up teaching a history class on one such historical comp – the Korean War. Rep. Gallagher served for seven...
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Throughout modern history, there were major wars that were triggered by fits of inattention or inadvertence. In retrospect, these moments can seem obvious – sometimes even linear. Walter Russuell Mead is observing some of these fits of inattention right now. Walter believes there is some kind of collective denial about these trends. He calls it “geopolitical climate denialism.” That’s what we...
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Each national political party should be thinking about their Plan B for the 2024 presidential election. Mike Murphy returns to the podcast to discuss each party’s predicament and where they can go from here. Murphy has worked on a number of presidential campaigns and run 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country. He was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush...
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One week ago, Israel’s parliament passed the first pillar of its judicial reform package. This, despite 30 weeks of massive protests against the reforms. Calling these mass protests understates it. Hundreds of thousands of people turning out each week, culminating last week in a historic protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We have received a lot of questions and comments from listeners to...
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Dr. Christine Rosen is skeptical of all the techno-optimism around the coming era of artificial intelligence. In this episode, she responds to our recent guest, Tyler Cowen (episode # 120). Christine Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on American history, culture, technology and feminism. Concurrently she is a columnist for Commentary magazine and one...
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Is the US on the cusp of reaching a new deal with Iran? Or has a deal already been hatched that nobody is talking about? To help us understand what is going on, Rich Goldberg returns to the podcast. Rich is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. From 2019-2020, he served as a Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security...
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Does Putin’s hold on power now look stronger or weaker? What can we learn about where the Russia-Ukraine war is heading? And what is actually happening with the Ukraine counter-offensive? Fred Kagan is the Director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also working closely with the Russia team at the Institute for the Study of War. Fred is a former professor...
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Last weekend, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, launched a rebellion, coup or putsch against Moscow. It’s still hard to discern what it was. As of now, It seems Prigozhin has halted the Wagner operation. The situation is fluid, and we aren’t going to leap to conclusions on this podcast. But our guest today, Richard Fontaine, told me he is skeptical that these events so...
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In this special re-published episode, we revisit a captivating conversation that resonated deeply with our audience, offering new listeners an opportunity to delve into the insights shared by Niall Ferguson. In this decade we may finally experience a true crack-up in higher education. There have been comparable periods on American college campuses in the past (in the 1960s and 1980s, for example).
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These days there are lots of conversations about the re-shaping of the workforce as a result of the pandemic. Bruce Feiler is just out with a new book – THE SEARCH: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World – based on years of research on this topic. He is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers. His book WALKING THE BIBLE describes his 10,000-mile journey retracing the Five Books of...
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Most of the post-midterm commentary has been focused on how the Democrats pulled off a surprise win in holding the majority in the U.S. Senate, and only lost the U.S. House of Representatives by a slim margin. But former Clinton and Schumer strategist — and current Bloomberg senior advisor – Howard Wolfson is asking something entirely different: why DID the Democrats lose the House?
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Looking back with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his new book, “BiBi: My Story”. Also looking forward to his next government’s approach to Saudi Arabia (could we see an expansion of the Abraham Accords?); Israel’s position in the Russia-Ukraine war (will Israel’s posture change under his leadership?); and what he sees as the implications of events on the streets of Iran. We spoke at an event...
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In this episode, we go deep on deconstructing the mid-term results. We try to understand the implications for both parties heading into 2024. (And Murphy even tries to draw a connection between Richard Nixon and Mahatma Gandhi). Mike Murphy has worked on 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country, including 12 wins in Blue States. He was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney...
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Yaakov Katz – Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post and a former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – returns to our podcast. Earlier, Yaakov Katz served as The Jerusalem Post’s military reporter and defense analyst. He is the author of “Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power” and co-author of two books: “Weapon Wizards – How Israel Became a...
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We join the team at Commentary Magazine for a discussion on scenarios for Israel’s next government coming out of this election (the 5th in 44 months!). Subscribe to commentary magazine by going to: commentary.
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Record inflation, another wake-up call out of Beijing, a new prime minister in the UK, overhang of supply chain shocks and massive fiscal and monetary stimulus from the pandemic, all against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war, which shows no signs of abating. What are the economic implications of all this? What should Central Banks be doing? Dr. Mohamed El-Erian returns to the podcast.
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With less than 3 weeks to the mid-term elections, Karl Rove joins the conversation. Karl served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush and White House Deputy Chief of Staff. He was the architect of both of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. He is the author “The Triumph of William McKinley” and also “Courage and Consequence”. He writes a weekly column for The Wall Street...
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With increasing talk about nuclear threats, we have three questions in this episode: What do we know from Putin’s past behavior that could inform how high up the ladder of escalation he is prepared to go? What are the next rungs up the ladder of escalation before the nuclear threat is real? As Putin moves up this escalatory ladder, what are the calculations of Zelensky, Europe’s leaders...
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We have all seen the images of women in cities across Iran burning their headscarves and cutting their hair in public to chants of “Death to the dictator.”. The protests began after the September 13th death of 22-year-old Masha Amini. According to reports, Iranian morality police had accused Amini of violating laws mandating women cover their hair. These events appear to have sparked a major...
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Vladamir Putin has announced what he called a “partial mobilization” of up to 300,000 reservists. According to reports, these reservists are basically former conscripts that will need training. Meanwhile, commercial flights out of Russia are apparently selling out, fast. The Russian Duma, on the other hand, is passing a law to clamp down on anyone evading their military service. And then there was...
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Between now and November, we will be taking a close look at the midterm election season, which — for most voters — is just kicking off now. If history is a guide, the first mid-term election cycle of a new president should result in the opposing party (the party not in the White House) scoring a wave of victories in Congress. How big will the wave be? New polls suggest that there may not be much...
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Are we getting closer to or farther away from an Iran deal? Walter Russell Mead of The Wall Street Journal has been following developments closely. I wanted to check in with him. But I also wanted to talk to Walter about his big new and groundbreaking book, called “The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.” Walter has been immersed in writing this book...
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While the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 3.7% in August from a low of 3.5% in July, job growth still remained well above the pre-covid trend. There are over 11 million job openings – that’s more than twice the number of unemployed people. But according to a growing body of economics and social science research, the headline jobs numbers that we all track conceals a much bigger problem...
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Matti Friedman is one of the most thoughtful writers when it comes to all matters related to Israel, on the broader Middle East, and also on trends in the world of journalism. He is a monthly writer for Tablet Magazine and a regular contributor to The Atlantic. His newest book is called “Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.” Before that he published “Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the...
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What is happening right now in Vienna with the negotiations over the future of Iran’s nuclear program? What was the significance of Putin’s recent trip to Iran? What is the nature of China’s relationship with Iran, and what can it tell us about Beijing’s grand strategy? And if Iran continues to build its nuclear program, what is Israel’s Plan B? These are some of the questions we explore with Mark...
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Why did Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei get such outsized attention? She’s not the first US Speaker to travel to Taiwan. Why did the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri get so little attention? After all, he was one of the three most important figures in al-Qaeda’s leadership for decades. And why the dwindling focus on the Russia-Ukraine war? Where does the war stand right now?
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Air travel this summer seems broken. On some days, major airlines have been canceling 10 percent of their flights. In normal times, it’s something like one in a hundred that are canceled. How did this happen? Is there an explanation beyond just the obvious – which is the turbocharged rebound from the past two years of pandemic-induced turmoil in the airline industry? Today’s guest thinks there’s...
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This next week will be among the most consequential in contemporary British politics. Ballots are sent out to Tory party members on August 1st, and they can begin voting right away. Whoever wins becomes Prime Minister in September, without first going through a General Election. So this next week is crucial for the two leading candidates to form final impressions before voting begins.
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Inflation hit a staggering 9.1% over the last 12 months, rising 1.3% for the month of June. The increases were “broad-based,” as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) put it, touching just about every aspect of our lives…especially food prices and energy prices. In anticipation of these new numbers, we invited Dr Mohamed El-Erian back to the podcast. He is President of Queens’ College at Cambridge...
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Are there comparable periods in our history that can guide us through the current ‘“woke” debates? Is there precedent for this kind of thing burning out? Will it? How did we get to this point? And how long will it take? That’s what we discuss today with Noah Rothman, whose new book, just released this week, is called “The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives War on Fun.”...
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Dan recently joined the Commentary Magazine podcast to share analysis on the current state of Israeli politics. We are posting that conversation here.
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What have we learned so far about this election cycle, and what does it tell us about what’s likely to happen in the midterm elections of 2022, and the Democratic and GOP primaries for president in 2024? Historically, California has often served as a movie trailer on our national political future — ‘coming to a theater near you.’ Richard Nixon started there, turning the Cold War threat into an...
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The Biden administration has announced that the President will take his first trip to the Middle East as president. His first stop will be in Israel to meet with Israeli leaders and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, before heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The U.S.-Saudi relationship began nearly eight decades ago between FDR and King Ibn...
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After the 100-day mark of the 2022 Russian war against Ukraine. we assess some grim facts of this war, and try to understand how they should inform what to expect in the next hundred days. Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Centar for a New American Security (CNAS), returns to the conversation. Richard is a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. CNAS is a bi-partisan foreign policy think tank in...
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When it comes to the future of sports and entertainment, Jon Patricof is always trying to innovate and disrupt. He’s had the added challenge of launching a business from scratch on the eve of the pandemic. Jon is the CEO and Co-Founder of Athletes Unlimited, a network of professional sports leagues. Launched in March 2020, Athletes Unlimited now operates leagues in pro women’s softball, volleyball...
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What are his objectives at this point in his war against Ukraine? And what are Ukraine’s objectives? What are US objectives? After all, the goals of different leaders in wartime often evolve based on battlefield developments. Are objectives shifting right now before our eyes…for Putin, Zelensky, and the US and NATO? And has the likelihood that Putin would use a limited nuclear strike changed as...
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In Israel we sit down with an entrepreneur and former Naval officer, who has built a company that has had to navigate the twin crises of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the maritime implications of cracks in global supply chains. Ami Daniel comes to these crises as the co-founder and CEO of Windward, a maritime data, analytics and artificial intelligence company bringing transparency to what is...
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Should we be surprised that there seems to be a renewed by bi-partisan consensus in response to Putin’s war? Are we back in a Cold War posture, both in policy terms and in our politics? Speaking of today’s politics, what can the past few decades of Republican politics and conservative ideas tell us about 2022 and 2024? According to Matthew Continetti, quite a lot. Matt Continentti is a senior...
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Is Putin crossing almost every line the West did not anticipate he would cross? What does this tell us about where he might might ultimately escalate to? Richard Fontaine returns to the podcast to answer these questions and others. Richard is CEO of the Center for New American Security. He was recently appointed to the Defense Policy Board by the Biden Administration’s Pentagon leadership.
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The 1970s were a tragedy – inflation, rising crime and crumbling cities, American humiliation abroad from the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, to Moscow’s geopolitical advances right in our backyard in Latin America. But here we are again, in the 2020s – with inflation surging to a four-decade high, a new crime wave and new decay in our cities...
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The security situation continues to deteriorate in Israel — tragic developments, including right in the heart of Tel Aviv. We continue to monitor developments and stay in close touch with Israeli family and friends. While Israel is a major focus of today’s conversation, the security crisis is not. We focus on the political impasse in Israel, which may be connected to the security crisis.
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Regardless of how or when the Russia-Ukraine war ends, is it possible to see the very early signs of a new geopolitical order taking shape? There are certainly some surprises, especially as it relates to Germany’s response to the crisis and – more broadly – the unity of Europe, and the overall scale of the economic response. Are there other new trends or global power centers we should be keeping...
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While we are all following the minute to minute developments in Russia-Ukraine, a new international deal with Iran on its nuclear program may be on the cusp of finalization. While there are still key details to be worked out, the broad contours are out there, and the implications are massive. So we wanted to have a conversation with an expert and policy practitioner that could walk us through the...
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How could Russia-Ukraine escalate? How could it deescalate? Does Zelensky survive? Does Putin survive? Does China try to bail out Russia? On this episode, we explore five scenarios with Richard Fontaine, who returns to the podcast. Richard Richard Fontaine is the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a bi-partisan foriegn policy think tank in Washington, DC. Prior to joining CNAS...
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As Russia has become isolated globally, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official was asked if Moscow has anyone left in its corner, anywhere in the world. Her response: “Of course, we have them. Look at the reaction of world giants. Those who do not pretend to be giants, but are real giants. For example, it is China. You can see this reaction, can’t you?” So what exactly is going on between Xi...
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Is Putin winning or losing? It looks like his war effort is not going according to plan, and that he underestimated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the resistance of the Ukrainian military, and the unity of the international response. But could Putin quickly turn things around? What would that look like? Congressman Mike Gallagher brings his perspective. Gallagher served for seven years on...
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Vladimir Putin may be unpredictable, but his direction seems to be clear. That’s the view of our guest today, Fred Kagan, who is a return guest. As of what we know now, February 25th, there are at least 1,100 Russian casualties in Ukraine, and Russian forces are entering Kiev. President Biden has announced new sanctions, but oil and natural gas are still exempt from sanctions, and Russia is still...
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“Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shadow-strike-yaakov-katz/1129520355 “Weapon Wizards – How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower”: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-weapon-wizards-yaakov-katz/
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You can order Micah’s books here: Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/catch-67-micah-goodman/1128089735 The Wondering Jew: Israel and the Search for Jewish Identity: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wondering-jew-micah-goodman/
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On this podcast, we spend a lot of time discussing the rising threat from China and Cold War 2. We’ve hosted Matt Pottinger (episode #28), Josh Rogin (episode #17), and Admiral Stravidis (episode #44). We’ve also done an episode on the future of the movie industry, with John Podhoretz (episode #16). But what do China – and specifically Cold War II – and Hollywood have to do with one another?
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Is it too late to deter Russia from invading Ukraine? It certainly seems that way. And while it should be obvious that it does matter, at least as far as US interests are concerned, we are struck by how many pundits and political actors are questioning the stakes. We have received these questions in response to our recent episodes on the Russia-Ukraine crisis – the conversations with Walter...
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Anti-semitism was tragically back in the news in recent days with the hostage-taking at the Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. But was this event covered the way it should have been? Barely. And this tells us a lot about anti-Semitism during these times. Is this period different? Have we entered a ‘new normal’ for anti-Semitism? Is it just the extremes or are there now more enablers?
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In these conversations, we’ve talked a lot about tensions on the Russia-Ukraine border. But what we haven’t talked about is whether Putin is actually trying to re-assemble the former Soviet Union, whether the US and NATO are prepared to arrest his march, and whether Putin has successfully driven a wedge between the US and Europe. What are the stakes for us? Walter Russell Mead joins us.
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On this podcast series, and in many other discussions and debates in think tanks and in the media, we often speculate about the likelihood of a kinetic conflict with China – is it inevitable? Or is it highly unlikely? But today we want to consider how a war would actually start, however grim this topic may be. It’s often hard to visualize what the trip wires would be. Admiral James Stavridis co...
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China is poised to pass one of the great demographic inflection points” – that’s according to the Financial Times. The inflection point the FT is referring to is that of diapers for the elderly growing into a larger market than diapers for infants. China won’t be the first. As far back as a decade ago in Japan, adult diapers started outselling infant diapers. What does that tell us about...
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The Covid-19 recession technically ended in April 2020. At two months, it was one of the shortest economic recessions in history. Since then, we have experienced record inflation. Last summer, we sat down with Mohamed El-Erian, who was an early voice warning about the coming inflation, how to understand it, and what its implications could be. But were the inflationary trends already in place prior...
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This week we are re-posting some of our episodes from 2021 that are most relevant right now. We’ll start with Matt Pottinger on recent developments in China. China’s borders have been sealed for almost two years. And those borders will be closed for the foreseeable future. That, obviously, is a result of the pandemic; but, is there a larger grand strategy at play? For decades now...
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What about Omicron has most surprised the scientific community? What does it tell us about vaccines and where we’re heading? These are among the big questions we have for Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former Commissioner of the FDA and author of The New York Times Bestseller: “Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic”. Scott currently serves on the boards of...
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Russia poses a threat to Ukraine, again. But what about Russian President Putin’s threat to the unity of Europe, and what do recent developments tell us about global perceptions of America’s geopolitical strength? Is Russia a declining power or is Russia on the march? Could it be both? Our guest, Richard Fontaine, is CEO of the Center for American Security. He was formerly the top foreign policy...
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In this decade we may finally experience a true crack-up in higher education. There have been comparable periods on American college campuses in the past (in the 1960s and 1980s, for example). But our guest today, historian Niall Ferguson, believes what’s happening now is on a whole other level. Niall is doing something about it — he’s starting a new university. Niall argues that parents — who had...
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The first of our two-part conversation with Naill Ferguson is on applied history’s lessons of the 1920s and the 1970s…for the 2020s.
Niall is a historian and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and he previously taught at Harvard, NYU and Oxford. He’s the managing director of Greenmantle, a macroeconomic and geopolitical advisory firm. Niall is also the author of 17 books including “The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook” and “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe”.
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/lessons-for-the-2020s-with-historian-niall-ferguson/.
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Welcome to our new podcast, “Call Me Back”, where we try to zoom out from minute-to-minute news and look back to how we got here, what we can learn from earlier decades and where we might be going in these roaring and raging 2020s.
In each episode, I’ll call a friend who is deeply immersed in some of the most transformative issues of our time.
Broadly speaking, I want to focus this podcast on this decade we’re in, the 2020s, because it strikes me that we’ll look back at the 2020s as one of the most consequential decades in modern history – from inflation and unprecedented fiscal and monetary policies, the technological transformation driven by AI, blockchain, and life sciences, to the rise of China and Cold War II, to declining American engagement in the Middle East and parts of Central Asia – all against the backdrop of culture wars, public safety breakdowns, and, of course, a public health crack-up as we come out of the pandemic.
This podcast is a natural transition from our Post-Corona podcast, where we tried to understand larger trends being shaped and accelerated by the pandemic. No doubt, we’ll continue to delve into those topics on this new podcast, as we haven’t fully processed how profound and long-lasting some of these changes will be.
We’ll also try to feature guests that can help us provide some historical context, to call us back to a previous period, where we can learn a thing or two from the past about what we’re dealing with now.
Our first episode will be this week, with historian, author and daring public intellectual Niall Ferguson. Look out for it. And feel free to drop me a line with ideas for the new podcast at Dan@unlocked.fm
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/dan-senors-new-podcast-call-me-back/.
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The recent electoral outcomes in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, Buffalo, Minneapolis and other areas across the country were as much to do with the pandemic — and the economic and cultural shocks from the pandemic — as anything. Was it a political blip or some kind of realignment?
Where does the Democratic Party go from here? And what about the Republican Party? What does it mean for Joe Biden and Donald Trump? Is the Glenn Youngkin campaign a model for our future politics?
Matthew Continetti is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, founding editor of The Washington Free Beacon, and a columnist for Commentary Magazine. He’s also the author of several books. He has a new book being released in April 2022, called “The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism”.
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/the-political-fallout-from-covid19-with-matthew-continetti/.
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Subscribe to Call Me Back in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
Have we revolutionized vaccine development? What does this mean for our lives and our health well beyond the vaccine for Covid-19? Could this kind of life sciences revolution only happen in America? And what about Operation Warp Speed? Is it a model for future public-private partnerships to solve big problems?
Greg Zuckerman of The Wall Street Journal joins the podcast to discuss his new and fascinating book, “A Shot to Save the World: The Inside Story of the Life-or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine.”
Greg’s previous books include: “The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution”, and then there was “The Greatest Trade Ever”, “The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters”, and “Rising Above: How 11 Athletes Overcame Challenges in Their Youth to Become Stars”.
Greg is s a Special Writer and investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal, a 20-year veteran of the paper and a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb award — the highest honor in business journalism.
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/vaccines-a-new-american-success-story-with-the-wall-street-journals-gregory-zuckerman/.
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In the middle of the pandemic, Dr. Nicholas Christakis released a sweeping book, called “Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live.” In it, he drew on scientific, medical, and sociological research, and assessed the transmission of the virus, responses worldwide, and prognosis for the pandemic’s end, including some bold predictions. The paperback edition is just out with some new material.
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/is-this-the-end-of-c-19s-beginning-with-yale-universitys-nicholas-christakis/.
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During the pandemic, standardized tests were suspended in an entire range of educational institutions. Will these changes be temporary or permanent?
More than 600 of these institutions switched from a mandatory to optional test for the 2020-21 application season, and many just flat out refused to accept a test at all in their application process. According to the editor in chief of the Princeton Review, “That is a tectonic change for many schools.”
According to Smithsonian Magazine, “The pandemic sped up changes that were already afoot; even before Covid, more than 1,000 colleges had made the tests optional. Many had been turned off by the way the tests perpetuated socioeconomic disparities, limiting their ability to recruit a diverse freshman class.”
Concerns about disparities in outcomes, at the core of this massive shift, have been behind Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s agenda in New York City, including his past efforts to eliminate the entrance exam for the City’s seven specialized high schools. While that effort has experienced a setback in the State Legislature, the fight will likely carry on by other political leaders. And more recently, the Mayor announced a plan to make sweeping changes to the gifted program in the City’s elementary schools. There are similar efforts in other cities across the country.
Joining today’s conversation is Adrian Wooldridge, a longtime journalist at The Economist, where he is political editor and writes a column on British life and politics, and before that he penned the Schumpeter column on business, finance and management. He was previously the Washington bureau chief for The Economist, where he also wrote the Lexington column. Prior to his role in Washington, he was The Economist‘s West Coast correspondent, management correspondent and Britain correspondent.
Adrian has written a number of books. His most recent books include “Capitalism in America: A History”, which he co-authored with Alan Greenspan, “The Wake-Up Call: Why the Pandemic Has Exposed the Weakness of the West, and How to Fix It”, which he co-wrote with John Micklethwait of Bloomberg News, and just out this year: “The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World”.
Adrian’s most recent book has been shortlisted for The Financial Times and McKinsey Book of the Year Award.
Feel free to drop us a line with questions, feedback and ideas for the new podcast at Dan@unlocked.fm
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/the-merits-of-merit-with-adrian-wooldridge-of-the-economist/.
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Subscribe to Call Me Back in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
JASON RILEY’S BOOK: “Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell”
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/maverick-jason-riley/1137602681?ean=9781541619685
THOMAS SOWELL’S BOOKS:
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/s/Thomas%20sowell
To write-in about the new podcast, please email: dan@unlocked.fm
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/a-new-crime-wave-with-jason-riley/.
Subscribe to Call Me Back in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
Books and essays discussed in this episode:
Shall We Wake the President: Two Centuries of Disaster Management from the Oval Office by Tevi Troy
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shall-we-wake-the-president-tevi-troy/1132107909
“Presidents and Public-Health Crises” in National Affairs by Tevi Troy
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/presidents-and-public-health-crises
“Operation Warp Speed: A Story Yet to be Told”
by Alex Tabarrok in Marginal Revolution
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/09/operation-warp-speed-a-story-yet-to-be-told.html
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/presidents-and-pandemics-with-tevi-troy/.
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Subscribe to Call Me Back in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
On this podcast, we’ve talked to a lot of policy-makers, pundits, professionals and practitioners about big picture trends they are observing and experiencing as a result of the pandemic.
Today, however, we are going more micro. We’ll talk to a venture capitalist about his portfolio of start-ups, and how those companies have been impacted by changes in the way we work and live, and what they tell us.
Michael Eisenberg is a General Partner at the Tel Aviv-based Aleph, which is an early stage venture capital fund with over $500M under management. Since its founding in 2013, Aleph has invested in more than 40 companies including Melio, Lemonade (NYSE: LMND), Bringg, JoyTunes, Healthy.io, Windward, Empathy and Nexar.
Prior to Aleph, Michael was a General Partner at Benchmark Capital for 8 years, the legendary Silicon Valley-based VC firm, and he continues to work with Benchmark on their Israeli portfolio.
Since around 1995, Michael has invested in and served on the boards of some of Israel’s leading companies and startups, such as Wix (Nasdaq: WIX), Gigya (acquired SAP), Shopping.com (Nasdaq: SHOP, acquired: EBAY), and Lemonade (NYSE: LMND).
Michael is also the author of a fun and smart blog, called “Six Kids and a Full Time Job”, which covers topics ranging from politics to technology, Judaism and macroeconomics. The title of his blog is misleading because now Michael actually has 8 kids and 2 grandchildren – and he’s only at the tender age of 50!
He is a frequent contributor to The Marker and Calcalist, Israel’s Hebrew-language daily business newspapers. Michael has also published numerous books in Hebrew, including “The Vanishing Jew”, “Everyone can be Moses” and “Roaring Tribe”.
Among other projects during the pandemic, Michael worked on translating his most recent book into English: “The Tree of Life and Prosperity: 21st Century Business Principles from the Book of Genesis”. Given his experience as a successful investor and business builder, and his deep literacy in Judaism, he’s the ideal person to tackle this subject and we’ll talk about his book in this conversation.
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/a-rosh-hashanah-special-business-principles-from-the-book-of-genesis/.
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To find the published pieces discussed in this episode:
“What the Coronavirus Crisis Reveals About American Medicine”, by Sid Mukherjee, The New Yorker (April 27, 2020) : https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/04/what-the-coronavirus-crisis-reveals-about-american-medicine
For all of Sid’s pieces published in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/siddhartha-mukherjee
“What We Have Gotten Right in the COVID FIGHT”, by Yuval Levin, Commentary Magazine (September 2021): https://www.commentary.org/articles/yuval-levin/americas-record-during-covid/
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/a-post-delta-world-with-dr-sid-mukherjee/.
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The Pandemic has either caused a crack-up in our politics or accelerated the crack-up that was well under way. And just when it looked like things were stabilizing, the politics of Covid have evolved along with the Delta variant. Ground zero for how this is playing out right now is California.
California is home to approximately 40 million people and the 5th largest economy in the world. It’s about to have an election on whether to re-call its incumbent governor, Gavin Newsom. How California voters have experienced government regulations — from lockdowns, mask mandates, school closings, and not to mention double-standards — shapes the political environment there.
Is this a harbinger of what’s to come to our national politics? To help us understand what’s going on in California is the strategist who masterminded the last successful recall election. Mike Murphy was the chief strategist for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election in 2003, which was a re-call of then-Governor Gray Davis.
Mike’s campaign resumé goes well beyond California. His past clients include the successful gubernatorial campaigns of Mitt Romney in MA, Jeb Bush in FL, John Engler in Michigan and Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin. And that doesn’t include all the Senate races he’s worked on.
Mike has also worked on campaigns in Europe and Canada. And he was the chief strategist on John McCain’s maverick presidential primary campaign in 2000 and remained a close advisor to the late-Senator McCain for years.
Today, you can catch Mike on the top-rated podcast, “Hacks on Tap” with David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs. He’s a political analyst on MSNBC and NBC, and he co-authors a weekly newsletter with his latest political analysis: hacksontap.bulletin.com. At the University of Southern California, he is the Co-Director of the USC Center for the Political Future.
This episode covers a lot of pandemic-related political trend analysis. But first, given the tragic news out of Afghanistan this past week, the episode begins with Mike’s thoughts on President Biden and this crisis. Regardless of what one thinks of President Biden’s policy in Afghanistan, a lot will depend on how our president performs in reassuring the American public and our allies abroad.
This episode begins with a discussion on President Biden and Afghanistan and then the second half looks at political trends during the Delta phase of covid.
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/delta-politics-with-mike-murphy/.
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A few websites referenced in this episode:
AEI’s Critical Threats Project: https://www.aei.org/profile/frederick-w-kagan/
Institute for the Study of War: https://www.understandingwar.org/
Long War Journal: www.longwarjournal.org
A recent oped that Fred Kagan published in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/opinion/biden-afghanistan-taliban.html
And a recent column by Charles Lane in The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/17/bidens-presidency-us-foreign-policy-now-hinge-pulling-off-one-greatest-airlifts-history/
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/afghanistan-the-new-geopolitics-with-fred-kagan/.
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China’s borders have been sealed for well over a year now. And those borders will be closed for the foreseeable future. That, obviously, is a result of the pandemic; but, is there a larger grand strategy at play?
For decades now, China’s coupling with western economies has been the dominant theme of the global economic landscape – beginning with China’s 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization.
But that’s been changing. Fast forward to a speech by President Xi Jinping to mark the hundred year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. He spoke before a massive crowd in Tiananmen Square: “The Chinese people”, Xi said “will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or enslave us. Anyone who tries to do so shall be battered and bloodied colliding with a great wall of steel forged by more than 1.4 billion Chinese people using flesh and blood.”
On July 2, Chinese regulators announced an investigation into DiDi Global, a ride-hailing company, right after its IPO. DiDi had raised $4.4 billion in the biggest Chinese IPO in the U.S. since Alibaba’s in 2014. There have been similar moves against other Chinese companies listed in the US.
Where will this go? Consider this: There are currently 244 U.S. listed Chinese firms with a total market capitalization of around $1.8 trillion, equivalent to some 4% of the U.S. stock market’s capitalization.
Are we witnessing the decoupling of the US and China economies? Is this the one issue on which there seems to be a bipartisan consensus in the US? Is the Biden administration cementing the Trump policies towards China or reversing them? How is China dealing with the Delta variant and how will it factor into the Chinese Communist Party’s next moves?
There’s no better guest to help us understand what’s going on than Matt Pottinger. Matt covered China and lived in China as a journalist for Reuters and then The Wall Street Journal. He covered the first outbreak of SARS in China.
He then, in his early 30s, made quite a career change. He enlisted in the US Marine Corps, and served in multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later on, Matt played an instrumental role in the geopolitical story of our time: reshaping the West’s relationship with China, when he served as the deputy National Security Advisor in the Trump administration, and he was the architect of the administration’s strategy towards China. Today, he is regularly called upon from policymakers on both sides of the aisle, to consult on US policy towards China.
As we enter a new phase of pandemic, what is going on with the US-China relationship and how will it play out?
Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/call-me-back/chinas-great-wall-of-steel-with-matt-pottinger/.
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Subscribe to Call Me Back in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.