Haaretz Podcast

The Iran war, like so many that came before it, centers on energy’s crucial role in geopolitics, according to Hebrew University historian Dr. Guy Laron, though international leaders often downplay or ignore it.
“Time and again, leaders speak in the language of values, security, justice, freedom, while chasing oil behind the scenes,” Laron said, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast in a discussion of the increasingly complicated geopolitics of the ongoing regional conflict in the wake of February’s U.S.-Israel attack on Iran and its effect on energy markets.
Historically, he added, even wars that don’t begin with energy at the center of the conflict often evolve into ‘oil wars’ once countries fighting for domination and influence are impacted by the necessity of access to tremendous levels of fuel to power both land and naval military forces.
Speaking on the podcast, Laron, the author of the new book "Oil Wars: The Struggle for Control that has Shaped the Modern World," (Yale University Press) noted how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used “energy calculus” to sell President Donald Trump on the attack and discussed the missteps that have left the White House mired in the region after Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz - something that the U.S. president “was told that this is exactly what would happen, and he still took the risk,” Laron said.
“Trump was dumb enough to think that what he did in Venezuela - in America’s backyard - he can do in the Middle East in the same way.”
Read more:
Houthis Claim Another Attack on Riyadh Airport, Threaten Saudi Oil Sites
As the Election Clock Ticks Down, Netanyahu Is Running Out of Wars to Win
Will Trump Defend Saudi Arabia From Houthi Attacks – and How Far Will He Go?
Trump's Iran War: Without Strategy, There Is No Path to Victory
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leaders of far-right parties running in the Israeli elections are openly campaigning on platforms that advocate expelling Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
On the Haaretz Podcast, senior analyst Esther Solomon and correspondent Linda Dayan discussed the platforms of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ex-general Ofer Winter, both of whom are wooing voters by attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government from the right.
Ben-Gvir in particular is proudly “promoting a platform for ‘voluntarily‘ expelling Palestinians from every single part from Gaza and the West Bank,” Solomon said.
Winter included his longtime support for “voluntary emigration” from Gaza in the platform of his new Amcha Israel party, in an effort Solomon described as being designed to appeal to far-right voters dissatisfied with Netanyahu, but “who are a little bit disgusted by some of the crude ways that Ben-Gvir operates. They like their candidates to look a bit nicer.”
Dayan, who recently attended a Winter campaign event aimed at English-speaking voters, said that Winter’s party’s positions articulated by the candidates on his list and their supporters are “a profoundly bizarre rejection of reality.”
Together with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Solomon and Dayan assessed the state of the race, which is increasingly shaping up into a likely deadlock, with neither the pro-Netanyahu nor the (Jewish, Zionist) anti-Netanyahu bloc coming close to achieving a 61-seat majority, according to the polls.
Read more:
Israel Election Poll: Eisenkot Bloc Continues Slump as Netanyahu's Coalition Gains Ground
Countdown to Election Day: A Road Trip Through a Country Deciding Its Future
America's Right Is Tired of Israel and Jews. NatCon Jerusalem Confirms It
This Leader of a Small, Far-Right Party Wants Netanyahu Fans to Take a Chance on Him
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The decision by Israel’s top generals and intelligence chiefs not to put the IDF on high alert in the hours before October 7 was “the worst gamble in Israeli military history,” according to senior defense analyst Amos Harel, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast on the third anniversary of the attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
“They terribly, tragically underestimated both Hamas’ capabilities and its actual intentions that night,” Harel said.
Harel is the author of “6:29: Anatomy of a Failure,” the first and most complete account of the chain of mistakes by the country’s top military and political echelons leading up to the devastating events of that day.
On the podcast, Harel recounts the military and political mistakes that were made, pinning them on “arrogance” and a “condescending” misreading of Hamas’ capabilities and determination – and how their failures have shaken Israeli citizen’s belief that they are “in safe hands.”
“We have the best air force in the region, one of the best in the world. We have the technology. We have the operational understanding, and so on, and yet we were taken by complete surprise,” he noted.
Harel also discusses the legacy of October 7, including how it is shaping Israel’s upcoming election, and the narrative crafted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has allowed him to maintain political viability as he runs a campaign that exploits fears of a repeat of the disaster, all while blocking the formation of an October 7 commission of inquiry or any other comprehensive investigation, and fanning the flames of conspiracy theories.
Netanyahu, he said, is “fighting for his life by any means necessary. Everything is worth it in order to maintain power and stay out of jail.”
Read more:
Analysis by Amos Harel | Three Years After Hamas Attacked on October 7, Israel Has Yet to Start Reckoning With Its Failures
October 7: How Hamas Attacked Israel, Minute by Minute
Protests Across Israel Mark Third Anniversary of October 7
Israel's October 7 Leaders Mourned the Dead – and Celebrated Their Own Survival
Op-ed | My Mother Was a Peace Activist Killed on October 7. Don't Use Her Name to Justify Mass Killing
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handling of the crisis after the Flydubai attack demonstrated his “facility at dominating the news cycle and setting the agenda of the debate” in the crucial weeks ahead of the October 27 Israeli election, said Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.

Netanyahu skillfully and quickly took the spotlight, basking in the reflected glory of the heroic pilot and passengers who saved the plane, while evading responsibility for the security failures as he did post-October 7. By doing so, he put his election rivals in a lose-lose position, Leifer noted.

If his rivals for power publicly acknowledged that “we're living in a dangerous neighborhood and we have to step things up, then you know they end up backing him,” Leifer said. “But if the opposition comes out and starts blaming Netanyahu” for the oversights and negligence that led to the near-disaster, “they come out looking like they’re spoiling the party and they’re not loyal.”

Leifer’s fellow Election Podcast panelist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin agreed and said given the situation, it is “smarter” for the opposition to “sit back and let the facts come out” in the media rather than go on the offensive.

On the podcast, Leifer and Scheindlin joined host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss flydubai, along with the impact of the commemoration of three years since October 7 on the campaign, dueling interpretations of the current polls, and the Netanyahu opposition’s “horrifically mismanaged” campaign.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The most recent attempt at a show of unity by the Jewish Zionist parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was only partially successful.
With the election less than a month away, their leaders may have agreed not to campaign against each other and save their fire for Netanyahu – but they failed to explicitly commit to backing whichever party leader garners the most votes to head the bloc, said Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.
"For most of the people who support the parties in the opposition bloc, it was a big disappointment that they couldn't say what seems so obvious to most people," Maltz said of the meeting between the four major parties opposed to Netanyahu.
"There was a lot of hope that they would emerge ... and say, 'We have a leader. It will be Eisenkot against Netanyahu,' but they could not reach an agreement on that."
Maltz was joined on the podcast by fellow Haaretz journalist Linda Dayan and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the fallout of the Central Elections Committee's decision to disqualify Arab parties along with individual members of the party, and the controversial decision by left-wing Democrats leader Yair Golan to support barring Balad party head Sami Abu Shehadah, who made comments following October 7 that were interpreted as supporting the Hamas attack.
"What he wrote is disgusting," Dayan said. "The question is whether it's actually illegal, and there are a lot of figures saying that it isn't," and noted that such votes to disqualify candidates is an "Israeli election tradition."
Maltz, who has been traveling across the country over the past months, reporting on the mood of Israeli voters, spoke on the podcast about her visit to Kibbutz Be'eri, where 132 people were massacred and 35 taken hostage on October 7, to find out how that trauma has affected their politics.
"Overall, most of them have moved to the right. But they will not vote for any parties in the current coalition, because much as they hate Hamas, they hate the current Israeli government even more, and blame them for October 7."
Read more:
Opposition Leaders Agree to Decide Who Will Lead Next Government Only After Elections
Banned Arab Party Leader to Challenge Knesset Disqualification in Court Despite Internal Opposition
Israel's AG Urges Court to Disqualify Arab Party Leader Over Post-Oct. 7 Remarks
Eisenkot Says No Arab Party Meets Demands to Join Government Led by Him
'Not Once Did You Use the Word Peace': In English, Yair Golan Strikes a Centrist Tone
Did Kibbutz Be'eri Lose Faith in the Left?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.