Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

ToI founding editor David Horovitz joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

As the US and Iran continue talks regarding a permanent deal, Horovitz says the regime feels it has established control over the Strait of Hormuz and views the US as vulnerable.

Horovitz discusses the deal-making tendencies of Trump, a way of thinking that ultimately worked in favor of the Hamas hostage deal, but is harder to achieve with the dilemmas in Iran, with Hezbollah in Lebanon and with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Following Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's recent comment that former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s decision to include the Islamist Ra’am party in his 2021-2022 government was far worse than the governmental failures tied to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, Horovitz comments on the level of political hostility and the absence of empathy among Netanyahu's government for all the bereaved Israelis and hostage families.

Finally, Horovitz reflects on the recent Golders Green stabbing attack, an iteration of the antisemitic attacks happening all over the Jewish diaspora, and how the British government has handled the situation.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

US, Iran said closing in on framework for permanent deal, as Trump renews bomb threats

Board of Peace won’t hold Israel to truce terms if Hamas doesn’t okay disarmament offer

Smotrich: Including Arab party in government ‘a thousand times’ worse than Oct. 7 failures

We’re not in the 1930s… yet

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Yitzchak Ledee.

IMAGE: ToI founding editor David Horovitz joins host Jessica Steinberg on today's Daily Briefing podcast. (ToI)

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