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Israel Update

Tablet Studios

This is the audio version of Israel Update. Israel Update is a video podcast hosted by Israeli historian and political commentator Gadi Taub and Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. The show offers news from the ground as well as an unparalleled insider perspective on the war.

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29 episodes
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Avg 1 hr 13 min
English

Episodes 29

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Wednesday · 1 hr 17 min
Here Are the Possible Scenarios
The election results are a complicated, messy tie. Netanyahu’s Likud is by far the biggest party. Eisenkot’s Yashar party is not even close. Yet Netanyahu’s bloc does not have a majority. But neither does the opposing bloc. And both now have to re-chart their courses vis-à-vis the rising bloc of Arab parties. Could this mean that the rifts among the Jews will have to be transcended? Will that prospect be helped along by Trump and a possible escalation in the Gulf after the midterms? Mike and Gadi discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
October 20 · 49 min
Wildly Different Polls - Who’s Right?
The election is right around the corner, and things are heating up. Gadi gives you the latest on election predictions. It is also olive harvest season, and you're about to hear a lot of lies about settler violence. We'll show you video evidence of the truth behind the olive harvest lies. Also on this episode a conversation with Kara Jesella, author of Antisemitic Feminism: An Intellectual History. You'll be surprised how deep the roots of this phenomenon are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
October 13 · 1 hr 38 min
The NatCon Controversy
The recent National Conservatism conference in Jerusalem (in which Gadi participated) generated controversy over the question of how conservative Jews should respond to the rise of antisemitism on the right. Mike had a great deal to say. The war in the Gulf is once again shape-shifting. Mike has the latest. And then there are the coming elections, with a new smear campaign against Netanyahu, this time by his former military secretary, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil. And as if that were not enough: the man who submitted the indictments against Netanyahu, former AG Avichai Mandelblit, is now being grilled by the defense, and it doesn't look like he has good answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 29 · 1 hr 10 min
What Will Israel Vote on?
The left-wing bloc in Israel is deliberately ignoring the elephant in the room: the war. They’re not saying anything about how they plan to pursue it. The reason is obvious. Their actual plans are very far from what the majority of voters – even their voters – want. Gadi and Mike meet in a disclosed location in Tel Aviv – actually, it’s 11 Pinsker St. if you want to know – to discuss all the latest with one exception: the war in the Gulf. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 22 · 1 hr 25 min
“Area P”: The Palestinian Bid to Take Over Judea and Samaria
Gadi returned from an intensive tour of the ranches in Judea and Samaria – where Jewish pioneers spearhead the struggle to prevent a Palestinian take-over of the territories. Aided by the Palestinian authority, Arabs buy land and build homes on deserted hilltops for which EU money supplies infrastructures and paves roads. If Israel does not wake up it will face a Gaza-like situation in the West Bank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 15 · 1 hr 13 min
Standing Ovation
The creators of the film NAZA, which accuses the IDF of AI-driven genocide, received a standing ovation whose length could rival the standing ovations of the Stalin-era Politburo. Mike and Gadi discuss the film and the way it was received in Israel and abroad. It seems that peddling blood libels against Jews has taken on an entirely different meaning in the post–October 7 world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 9 · 1 hr 7 min
Haaretz Nonsense and David Remnick’s Toupee
The Haaretz “bombshell” story about a warning from MBZ to Netanyahu is not just nonsense — it’s hilarious nonsense. Still The New Yorker swallowed it whole. But precisely because it’s bogus, it actually tells you a lot about the state of Israeli politics - as the country gears up for elections. It’s been a while since Mike and Gadi had this much fun in a single show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 8 · 1 hr 37 min
Israel Update Special with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Gadi sits down with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a long conversation in Hebrew. To watch with English subtitles, please visit tabletmag.com/israelupdate, or you can access the video on Spotify, YouTube, or Rumble. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 1 · 1 hr 21 min
Is Winter Coming for Netanyahu?
Former IDF general Ofer Winter has launched Amcha Yisrael (“People of Israel”), a new right-wing populist party. Gadi explains why Netanyahu’s camp sees Winter as a threat. In Israel’s fragmented electoral system, small parties can end up wasting votes by drawing support away from other right-wing parties that then fail to cross the threshold for entering the Knesset. Winter insists that he belongs to the right-wing camp. But he rejected a reserved slot on the Likud list and chose to run on his own. His move could cost the right its majority and, ultimately, Netanyahu his hold on power. Mike and Gadi also discuss the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz, where a “no war, no peace” deadlock drags on. And they revisit last week’s conversation with Dan Schueftan, who, apparently with his ears burning, called in just as they were criticizing him. Mike reminded everyone that literally the funniest thing in the world is the recording of LBJ ordering Haggar slacks from the Oval Office, which is available at the following link: https://millercenter.org/listening-to-the-presidency/lbj-orders-some-new-haggar-pants Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 26 · 1 hr 21 min
There Are No Solutions
In the Middle East, argues Dan Schueftan, there are no solutions—only threats to contain, opportunities to exploit, and problems to manage. He joins Mike to explain why Gaza will require “violent maintenance,” why Turkey poses an immediate strategic challenge, and why economic pressure remains the best weapon against Iran. Plus: Israel’s resilient society, its failing political class, and the hard strategic lessons Americans still refuse to learn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 10 · 1 hr 17 min
Israel’s Wartime Boom
Strangely, almost unbelievably, Israel’s economy is booming, even after three difficult years of war. The Tel Aviv 35 Index is up 130% since this government took office. Mike and Gadi try to explain how this has come to pass. Also on this episode: the plague of selective enforcement against the Israeli right in the showdown ahead of the coming elections, and our usual assessment of the state of the war—in the Gulf and here at home, in Gaza. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 4 · 1 hr 11 min
Israel Will Not Yield
Dr. Einat Wilf sometimes sounds like the right, and sometimes like the left. Which is, perhaps, the point of the new political party she founded. It’s named courage (Oz, in Hebrew). We asked her what the party’s agenda would be. We also discussed the suggested changes to the Gaza deal - which we agreed will not come to pass. Gadi’s long interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly confirmed this view. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
July 29 · 1 hr 14 min
What Did Netanyahu Get From Trump?
This is the 8th time that Netanyahu is invited to the White House since Trump returned to power. The stalemate in the Gulf was probably the main subject of their one and a half hour discussion. Mike surveys the possible plans they may have agreed or disagreed on. Meanwhile, the “Settler Violence” campaign is coming to a head as Palestian terrorism escalates. Are Israelis realizing they are being manipulated by the media, at home and abroad? And here is Melanie Phillips’s brilliant piece on the “Settler Violence” canard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
July 21 · 1 hr
Escalation in the Gulf
Mike lays out the four possible scenarios in which the current escalation in the Straits of Hormuz can develop. Gadi revisits the “settler violence” canard, in light of the devastating arson attack perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists against the settlement of Havat Gilad. Also in this episode: J. D. Vance and Gadi Eisenkot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
July 14 · 1 hr 25 min
Election Season - Beware!
Mike thinks there’s a clear limit to how far Trump will escalate hostilities with Iran before the midterms, and Gadi explains the recent legislation blitz and why the ultra-orthodox draft has become such a hot button issue and why it's such an effective weapon for the left. It may well carry the day for them at the ballot box. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
July 7 · 1 hr 22 min
Tempest in a Constitutional Tea Pot
The left-wing media is in full hysteria over the government’s refusal to accept a Supreme Court injunction that directly contradicts the letter of the law. The issue is media regulation — and, as Gadi explains, it is political, not legal. It is high time the cabinet stopped letting itself be bullied by a full-blown progressive court. Also in this episode: Is Mike’s interpretation of the MOU turning out to be more accurate than Gadi’s — and Dan Shueftan’s? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
June 30 · 50 min
Can Israel save the us from its mistake? With guest Dan Schueftan
Trump’s MOU repeats a very American mistake, says guest Prof. Dan Schueftan: like many presidents before him he does not understand radicalism. But the Lebanon Deal may be able to rectify some of the damage. In which case, says Schueftan, it would not be the first time that Israel saves the US from its own mistakes. Also in this episode: judges declare the bribery case against Netanyahu groundless. The book Dan Referred to turned out to be A World Restored, by HK, which, incidentally, Gadi only read on kindle and had a hard copy sent to Mike a few weeks back, because Amazon won't ship it to Israel. Highly recommended. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
June 24 · 54 min
Netanyahu Won’t Back Down
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again affirmed that Israel will maintain its security zone in Lebanon – for as long as needed, regardless of any outside pressure. Mike and Gadi explain why yielding on this issue will cost Netanyahu the elections. Batya Ungar-Sargon was our special guest on this episode. She joined us to discuss her new book The Jews and the Left. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
June 16 · 1 hr 6 min
Is It Really So Bad?
Gadi thinks it is. The US has demonstrated that it will not really fight – unless it’s easy, can be done from the air, and includes very few casualties. That is a bad signal for every rogue regime the world over. Mike thinks the MOU is just a tactical retreat, and that hostilities will resume, eventually. Both, however, agree that it’s a blow for Israel in general and for Netanyahu’s election bid in particular. Then there is also the joke about the skeleton who orders beer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
June 10 · 1 hr 12 min
Trump and Netanyahu: A Lovers' Spat
TRUMP AND NETANYAHU: A LOVERS' SPAT Contrary to the media’s rendering, no great rift has opened between Trump and Netanyahu. Rest assured that the Israeli attack on Iran was fully coordinated with the Americans. Trump, though, would do well to insist that Lebanon should have no relation to the negotiations with the Islamic Republic. Also on this episode: how rouge former head of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, conspired with Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara to undermine an elected government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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