Podcast
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis
Hosted by Daniel Gordis · EN
Israel from the Inside is for people who want to understand Israel with nuance, who believe that Israel is neither hopelessly flawed and illegitimate, nor beyond critique. If thoughtful analysis of Israel and its people interests you, welcome!
danielgordis.substack.com
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An Israeli Arab gets murdered almost every day in the Jewish State. Why?
2d ago00:12:50Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comHere are some basic numbers. The picture is not pretty. In fact, it’s horrifying. * As of early May 2026, Israel’s annual homicide toll stood at 111, with 96 of those victims being Arab citizens — roughly 86% of all murder victims, in a community that constitutes about 21% of the population. Haaretz* The NGO Abraham Initiatives noted that 2026 is the fastest pace at which the Arab community has reached 100 murder victims in over five years. The Jerusalem Post* The Arab community’s murder rate in 2025 was approximately 11 per 100,000 — a figure the Finance Ministry compared to countries like Sudan or Iraq. Haaretz* For context on the Jewish rate: in 2023, the homicide rate among Jews and other non-Arab Israelis was 0.85 per 100,000, meaning Arab Israelis’ violent death rate was more than 13 times higher than that of Jews. The gap has only widened since. In 2024, there were 220 homicides in the Arab population compared to 58 among Jews, whereas until 2015, the ratio was roughly 4:1. Taub Center* Israel Police have solved just 15% of homicides in Arab communities versus 65% among Jewish Israelis, according to Knesset data.What is happening here? How can Jewish Israel be a country in which there is, essentially, almost no murder at all, while in the Arab community, theoretically protected by the same police and same court system, the plague of killing is entirely out of control? What is the cause of all this? What are the police doing and not doing? Are there those in the government who are actually happy to see the murder rate rise? Why would that be? Who is killing whom and why? Is there anything that can be done? We hear today from an Israeli Arab woman, a lawyer and activist, Rawyah Handaqlu. What she has to say isn’t easy to hear—but we need to. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Rawyah Handaqlu is a lawyer and social entrepreneur, and the Director of Eilaf –The Center for Advancing Security in Arab Society. She led the Emergency Headquarters for Combating Crime and Violence in Arab Society, operating under the National Committee of Heads of Arab Local Authorities. Rawyah brings extensive experience working with local government, civil society, and multi-sectoral frameworks. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Public Policy for Local Government from the University of Haifa. She writes policy papers and articles on social and public policy issues, lectures widely, and is a social activist working to advance equal opportunities and a shared society. She is a recipient of the Peres Center for Peace “Knight” Award, was selected to TheMarker’s“40 Under 40 –Most Promising Young Leaders” list, and received the Rising Star for Human Rights Award from the New Israel Fund UK.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
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The kaffiyeh on the Bimah's table
3d ago00:10:17Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comAs we’ve noted for quite some time now, we’re going to look at American Jewish anti-Zionism over the course of several episodes, not necessarily because it is going to be a long-term feature of American Jewish life — I explain towards the end of today’s video why I believe that will not be the case — but because of what it has to teach us about the DNA …
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How the IDF completely failed to prepare for the drones Israel now faces, and why the "front" could soon be all of us
4d ago00:02:20Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comAs we noted yesterday, the issue of Hezbollah’s drones has become the newest headline in a war that has had more than its share of horrors. I asked Yaakov Katz, our “go to expert” on armaments, among many other things, to explain to us the following: * What are these drones, what can they do, and where do they come from?* How is it possible that Israel is so vulnerable to this new weapon and is so entirely unprepared?* What can the army do—and what is the army actually doing—to protect soldiers in the north, who are being killed by these drones at an alarming rate?* There are rumors that Hamas in Gaza and terrorists in Judea and Samariah (the West Bank) also have these drones. If that’s the case—and it is—how vulnerable are those of us who live in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv? The answer is not comforting. * What about Ukraine, which is a laboratory for drone warfare? What have they learned how to do and how is it that we’ve learned nothing from them? Or have we? Iran’s nuclear arsenal is obviously a long term threat that Israel cannot ignore, but Hezbollah’s drones, and presumably Hamas’ drones and those on the West Bank, are an immediate threat. There’s no one better to explain to us how we got here, how bad or not bad the situation is, plus what we might be able to do, than Yaakov Katz. The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist and a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem. Between 2016 and 2023, Yaakov was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post where he continues to write a popular weekly column. Yaakov also writes a regular column for Newsweek and the Jewish Chronicle, is the host of the JPPI weekly podcast and appears regularly on CNN and BBC as an analyst on Israel affairs.Yaakov is the author of four books: “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower”, “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War” and “While Israel Slept- How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East”.Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.In 2013, Yaakov was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya and their four children.
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They call themselves “Ansar Allah” — Defenders of God. Who are today's Houthis, and what should we expect?
1w ago00:07:21Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comIn our previous conversation with Dr. Sarah Feuer last week, Yemen 101: Who are the Houthis, where did they come from, and what should we expect?, we looked at the history of Yemen, the religious and cultural background — as well as the conflicts — from which the Houthis emerged, and sought to understand their relationship to the rest of the region. Today, we take on the current conflict, why the Houthis participate in some wars and not others, and perhaps most importantly, what may still lie down the road when it comes to these “Defenders of God” and their plans vis-à-vis the Jewish state. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Dr. Sarah J. Feuer was the Rosenbloom Family Fellow in the Washington Institute’s Geduld Program on Arab Politics.Her 2018 book, Regulating Islam: Religion and the State in Contemporary Morocco and Tunisia, was published by Cambridge University Press. An expert on politics and religion across North Africa, Feuer was previously a senior fellow and a Soref fellow at the Institute, where she authored numerous policy papers and monographs covering developments across the Maghreb and religion-state dynamics in the Arab world more generally.Her 2019 study, Course Correction: The Muslim World League, Saudi Arabia’s Export of Islam, and Implications for U.S. Policy, examined the shifting contours of Saudi religious export in recent years.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
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How are young Israelis *really* doing? We hear from a wife, mother and professional about life in an exhausted state
1w ago00:04:10Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com“Is it really over?” That’s what Israelis are asking themselves. They hope the answer is yes. They hope the answer is no. “No,” because Hamas is rebuilding, Iran is running Hezbollah, and Iran … well. Things simply cannot be left this way. But “yes,” because people here are just exhausted. We need to breathe. Everyone is emotionally spent. Reservists ha…
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FIGHTING THE HATE: A HANDBOOK FOR JEWS UNDER SIEGE by Melanie Phillips
2w ago00:13:43Tap to summarizeMelanie Phillips hardly needs an introduction to most readers of Israel from the Inside, though for those who would like a quick refresher on her extraordinary career, a brief bio can be found below. Melanie recently invited me to be in dialogue with her at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on the occasion of her launching her most recent book, and today, we’re delighted to share the recording of that conversation, which took place just last week. Fighting the Hate: A Handbook for Jews Under Siege, her new book, is in many ways a “bookend” to her previous book, ,The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians built the West -- And Why Only They Can Save It, which was published by Wicked Son in January 2025, and which identifies the crisis of civilization revealed by the Hamas-led atrocities in Israel on October 7 2023 and suggests a rescue remedy for the west to prevent its collapse.As you will hear in our conversation, I struggle with Melanie’s confidence that anti-Semitism — a hate which she calls “deranged” in her book, an assessment with which I wholeheartedly agree — can be countered by the rational, cerebral responses that she suggests in her new book. But Melanie’s responses to my questions on that subject were illuminating, as were her comments on subjects as diverse as how best to deal with virulent demagogues such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens; how much rhetorical ground Israel’s defenders should concede to the enemies of the Jewish state; whether self-respecting Jews should even have the New York Times in the house; and how to deal with Jews who are enemies of the Jewish people — the last issue being one that we’ve devoted significant time to in our own posts. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.The full recording of our conversation can be watched below … Melanie Phillips is a British journalist, broadcaster and author.Her weekly opinion column, which currently appears in The Times of London, has been published over the years in the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times and Daily Mail. She also writes for the Jewish News Syndicate, broadcasts on radio and TV and speaks on public platforms throughout the English-speaking world.My latest book is Fighting the Hate: A Handbook for Jews Under Siege which was published by Wicked Son on March 12 2026. It provides a strategy and a route map for individual Jews and their communal leaders to help fight back against the hatred unleashed against Israel and the Jews in the west.Phillips’ first novel, The Legacy, which deals with conflicted Jewish identity, antisemitism and the power of history, was published in 2018 along with her personal and political memoir, Guardian Angel.Her previous books include the 2006 best-seller Londonistan, about the British establishment’s capitulation to Islamist aggression, and The World Turned Upside Down: the Global Battle over God, Truth and Power, published in 2010. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danielgordis.substack.com/subscribe
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Yemen 101: Who are the Houthis, where did they come from, and what should we expect?
2w ago00:11:06Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comLook at the map of the Middle East, zoomed way, way out. Yemen (bottom in the green) seems like a place that should have no interest in dealing with Israel. In many ways, it’s in an entirely different part of the world. As we hear today from Dr. Sarah Feuer, that map can be misleading. Yemen, and the Houthis who now rule most of it, are religiously and culturally deeply embedded in the world we inhabit. But they are also, in many ways, the “enemy” about which we know the least. Today and next week, we’ll try to change that. Today, we’ll cover the background issues: * The basic geography and demographic makeup of the country* Key points along Yemen’s political history. What do we need to know to make sense of the current state of affairs “down there”?* The origin story of the Houthis. What does the name mean? Are they a party, a religious movement, an organization? * And, of course, the link between the Houthis and Iran – how close is this relationship? Does it make sense to think of the Houthis as an Iranian proxy?Next week, having focused today on Yemen writ large and the background of the Houthis, we will focus on their ideology, their military capabilities, and the threat they do and do not pose to Israel. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Dr. Sarah J. Feuer was the Rosenbloom Family Fellow in the Washington Institute's Geduld Program on Arab Politics. Her 2018 book, Regulating Islam: Religion and the State in Contemporary Morocco and Tunisia, was published by Cambridge University Press. An expert on politics and religion across North Africa, Feuer was previously a senior fellow and a Soref fellow at the Institute, where she authored numerous policy papers and monographs covering developments across the Maghreb and religion-state dynamics in the Arab world more generally. Her 2019 study, Course Correction: The Muslim World League, Saudi Arabia's Export of Islam, and Implications for U.S. Policy, examined the shifting contours of Saudi religious export in recent years.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
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"I prayed for a hug"
2w ago00:02:18Tap to summarizeThe boos started almost immediately in Basel (the same city, ironically, where Herzl held the First Zionist Congress in 1897). As Yuval Raphael stepped onto the Eurovision stage last year, in May 2025, portions of the crowd made clear that she was not welcome. Flags waved. The room echoed with the jeers with which we’re all now familiar. The point of the protesters was clear — no one from Israel was welcome. It was ugly, just as it was this year when Noam Bettan sang and was booed and still came in second. Strangely, though, it was also, by any reasonable measure, not even close to the worst of what the still very young Yuval Raphael had endured.Israelis have long “known” about what happened to her on October 7, but now she’s discussed it in detail, in an extensive interview with Channel 11 (the interview is in Hebrew, but you can set your browser to provide English subtitles—more on all that below). Eighteen months earlier, on the morning of October 7, 2023, Raphael was doing what 24-year-olds do and what thousands of other Israelis were doing that dawn. She was dancing at a music festival — the Nova festival, in the fields near Re’im, not far from the Gaza border. Then, as we all know too well by now, the rockets started. She and a friend ran, found a roadside bomb shelter, squeezed in alongside dozens of others who had the same desperate idea. But the terrorists, of course, found them and opened fire. They threw grenades. Then they came back and opened fire again. Raphael survived, but in the sort of way that haunts survivors for the rest of their lives: she lay still, beneath the bodies of the dead, and did not move. For hours. When it was over, she and roughly ten others walked out. Dozens did not.It might seem obvious, but the survivors deserve that we remind ourselves: “Sh/e wasn’t injured and s/he wasn’t kidnapped” in no way means “S'/he’s OK.” This is a country of amputees, of broken bodies, of shattered families, of exhausted soldiers … and of resilience that’s simply impossible to describe. Hear Yuval Raphael’s interview, and then ask yourself if you think Israel has what it takes to survive. Yuval Raphael grew up in Ra’anana, north of Tel Aviv, the kind of Israeli kid who listened to Led Zeppelin and Beyoncé with equal passion, who loved theater and studied Arabic in school, who then — like most Israelis her age — served in the IDF. She was stationed at checkpoints around Jerusalem. Then she came home, and she was quiet about her singing, until she wasn’t.If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.She entered Ha-Kokhav Ha-Ba — Israel’s version of “A Star is Born” — and won. She had never recorded professionally before. “New Day Will Rise” was her first song. It was written for her, lyrics in English and French and Hebrew, with a well known verse from the biblical book, The Song of Songs, woven in. Here’s the song, and her performance. If you listened to “New Day Will Rise” or watched her performance without knowing what she’s been through, you might think, “nice song.” Or you could think whatever you think. But if you do know about her past, then hearing her sing about hope is an entirely different experience. Kan 11 put a short clip of her interview on Hebrew social media. to which we’ve added subtitles (the clip is here on Instagram and here on Facebook, though the FB link doesn’t always work). The full interview is below. It’s in Hebrew, but if you use the settings on your browser correctly, it can auto-generate English subtitles. In Chrome, it looks like this: This is the link to the full interview: In Basel, when the hall dripped (at least partially) with Israel-hatred, Raphael did not flinch. It’s been said in the Israeli media (though I obviously can’t vouch for the veracity) that she had spent months rehearsing with recordings of booing crowds playing in the background, preparing herself for precisely what unfolded. If that’s true, it worked. Even if she didn’t “win,” she won. The judges gave her second place. The public — the ordinary people watching from their living rooms across Europe — voted her first.Some things, it turns out, are still recognizable across borders. Some things, it turns out, can still be heard through the chorus of hate. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danielgordis.substack.com/subscribe
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When the collapse of old dreams leads to the flowering of new ones
3w ago00:14:10Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comI noticed this week, at the Shabbat table in two different homes, and in a series of conversations at work and around the neighborhood cafés, that I keep hearing people use the phrase “the collapse of civilization.” As in, “what we’re witnessing — in Europe, the United States, and even in Israel to a degree — is not this leader or that party, this issue or that inanity, but rather the (to us) depressing realization that, writ large, Western civilization as we knew it is collapsing. That’s certainly how I feel. I’ve been feeling it for a long time. I remember vividly, as if it was yesterday, the day that my wife and I were watching CNN in our family room when the story of the Billy Bush Bus Tape (“grab ‘em by …”) broke. I looked at my wife and said, “That’s it, it’s over. He’s done.” She said to me, “Are you sure?”To which I said, “Of course I’m sure. Come on, you can’t talk that way about women in the twenty-first century and win the nomination of your party, much less be elected President of the United States. He’s toast.” Ooops. That wasn’t quite right. When that comment didn’t make Donald Trump an “untouchable”, I began to sense that something deep was shifting about America, and that more than anything, or at least as much as anything, what was changing was the abandonment of norms. Norms are gone. They’re gone from the Trump Administration. The Netanyahu Administration. They’re gone from how the world used to use soft power. They’re gone from diplomacy. They’re just … gone. Norms are disappearing from Jewish life, too. Remember how honored Jewish students would have once been to have the President of the State of Israel speak at their graduation? Or how, even if they weren’t huge fans, they would have known how to comport themselves? Norms gone. I want to return for just one brief moment to the story of those JTS students who objected to President Isaac Herzog speaking at JTS Commencement. We’ve already covered what’s been said, and there’s no need to go back there. BUT, what has changed since we posted on that subject is that President Herzog notified JTS that his travel plans do not permit him to go to New York at the present time. One doesn’t have to be Einstein or Freud to figure out what may very well have been going through his mind, or the minds of his advisors. What, the President of the State of Israel is going to go to New York, to one of the world’s great Jewish institutions, and possibly get booed? Or have people hold up signs, however politely? Or walk out, however “respectfully”?It would have sullied the office of the President. Is that really why he didn’t go? I have no idea. But everyone has a pretty good guess. Not for naught did the Times of Israel phrase its headline above the way that it did. But, rather than focus once again on the Conservative Movement, or JTS, or the culture of young Jews, or whatever … it’s worth turning our attention, instead, to Jonathan Haidt. Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at NYU's Stern School of Business, best known for his research on moral psychology and how emotions — rather than reason — primarily drive human moral judgments. He developed Moral Foundations Theory, which identifies several innate moral intuitions (such as care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and sanctity) that vary across cultures and political ideologies, helping explain why liberals and conservatives tend to talk past each other. His popular books, including The Righteous Mind and The Anxious Generation, have brought these ideas to a broad audience, arguing that political polarization and the sharp rise in teen anxiety, depression, and social fragmentation linked to smartphone-based childhood are among the major societal challenges of our time. Why mention Jonathan Haidt here? Now? Because Haidt was chosen to deliver the commencement address at NYU’s graduation ceremony, held at Yankee Stadium, and guess what happened …. Immediately, NYU’s Student Government Assembly Executive Committee condemned his selection, criticizing his “disturbing rhetoric around antiracism, social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion,” and called it “a regression” from previous speakers. They contrasted him unfavorably with past speakers like Taylor Swift (YES, to these NYU students, a world class scholar is a regression from Taylor Swift!!) and Justice Sonia Sotomayor. More broadly, students objected to his labeling of their generation as “coddled,” his critiques of DEI programs, and argued that his platform did not represent their values. Who in the world would want to hear from someone who does not represent “their values”? What, we came to a university campus to engage with ideas that might be different from our own? NYU was quite right to stand its ground and to describe Haidt as one of the most consequential scholars of the 21st century. But the students didn’t care. Even before Haidt began speaking, he was met with boos from students as he was welcomed to the stage. About three dozen students walked out of the venue in protest.And here’s a delicious irony: Some students found it “hypocritical” that Haidt’s speech wasn’t required to be recorded in advance, given that the prior year NYU had required pre-recording of some speeches after complaints about a student speaker who spoke against Israel.It’s unfathomable but also undeniable — Western civilization is collapsing before our very eyes. JTS students, it turns out, are just students. They are just like NYU students. That may be a tragedy, a sign of the loss of the Jewish values of respect, honoring elders, etc. that used to pervade and shape Jewish life, but the problem isn’t them, or JTS, or the Conservative Movement. The problem is the world — or what’s left of it. Now, why begin with all this today? Because our guest today has what is to me a fascinating thesis. Jewish life and Israeli life are also going through dramatic shifts, but Rabbi Prof. Jeffrey R. Woolf argues that at least in the case of Jewish life, one can find in the cracks and failures or some of the collapsing of visions the blossoming of new visions, and often, a re-embrace of Jewish living. Jeffrey Woolf is a much-admired and lauded public intellectual, and I’m beyond grateful to him for taking the time to share with us his view of how three collapsed dreams in Jewish life have led to rebirth. It’s a very optimistic take on Jewish life, one that — especially with the collapse of so much around us — is particularly good for our souls. For us, in this forum, it’s also important as a window into what some people inside Israel think when they think about the future of Jewish life. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Rabbi Prof. Jeffrey R. Woolf is an internationally known scholar, lecturer and public figure. For thirty years was Associate Professor in the Talmud Department at Bar-Ilan University, specializing in the History of Halakhah, Medieval and Renaissance Jewish History, the Philosophy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and the inter-action between Judaism, Islam and Christianity.He received his PhD in Medieval Jewish History at Harvard University and spent two years at Yale University, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. Rabbi Woolf studied for nine and a half years under Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik זצ”ל, from whom he received semikhah in 1982.He is a leading advocate and spokesman for Modern Orthodoxy. In Israel, he is a member of the Executive Committee of Maaleh: The Center for Religious Zionism and Chairman of the Board of NGO Monitor. Executive Committee of Tzionut Mamlachtit. He has also written a great deal, including The Fabric of Religious Life in Medieval Ashkenaz (1000-1300): Creating Sacred Communities (2015). He and his wife They are blessed with five children and three grandchildren. They make their home in Efrat, Israel.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
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How badly has Israel lost the American public? Is there anything at all we can do?
3w ago00:13:32Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comIt’s hard to quantify (though I suppose that there are ways that sophisticated researchers could manage), but it’s clear that Israel’s press is much more engaged than ever before with the attitudes of American Jews — but also the attitudes of American voters writ large — to Israel. There’s a reason that the Israeli press is suddenly paying much closer attention to Americans — Democrats and Republicans, young and older, the Evangelicals, the Jews and more. The reason, sadly, is that when it comes to how Israel is seen in the American electorate, things have simply never, ever been worse. The data is clear, but it needs explaining. Dr. Avishay Ben-Sasson-Gordis, a Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), has been researching this issue for quite some time, and recently, has done a deep dive into the Pew Center data on the subject. He’s also been writing about it a great deal for the Israeli public. But Avishay is also (as you may have divined from his name) my son-in-law. Thus, as much as I really wanted to interview him here, I was hesitant … until he was interviewed on Echad be-Yom — Israel’s most widely listened to podcast, by far. When that appeared, I thought, “no reason they should get to hear him and we shouldn’t.” So I asked Avishay to share with us what he spoke about on Echad be-Yom, and am grateful that he agreed. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis is a Liberalism Rekindled postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ruderman Family Foundation Scholar in Residence and Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.His current work focuses on the democratic theory of coercive political institutions. His book project, “Not Just War”, based on his doctoral dissertation (Harvard 2023), offers a normative theory of democratic civil-military relations. In his empirical research he centered on Israeli security policy, governing institutions, and public opinion.His research has been published in Political Science Research and Methods and in Armed Forces & Society. He’s a frequent commentator on Israeli current affairs in international and Israeli media, and my commentary has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Ha’aretz, and World Politics Review.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
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