Haaretz Podcast

In the inaugural episode of Haaretz’s new Election Podcast, host Allison Kaplan Sommer welcomes the first weekly panel of Haaretz analysts who will be examining and explaining developments in the intensifying countdown to the fateful elections this fall.
This week, senior analyst Esther Solomon and Palestinian affairs correspondent Nagham Zbeedat assess the state of a race in which neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his opposition currently have a path to victory according to the polls.
At the moment, “Netanyahu is more or less maxed out on however many people will still be loyal to him,” Solomon said. “He cannot crack the numbers to get anywhere near a majority to form a coalition.”
She discussed the ways in which Netanyahu visibly battled for political survival in a hastily called press conference Saturday night – from his reframing of the ongoing bloodshed in Lebanon to an invitation to his opponents to join him in a unity government.
Netanyahu’s call for unity and vow to do “everything to diffuse” a “civil war,” Solomon said, showed an extraordinary “degree of chutzpah” given that “there has been no issue he hasn’t tried to divide and inflame and incite within Israeli society.”
Zbeedat provided an update on ongoing negotiations between Hadash, Ta’al, Balad and United Arab List to run together as the Joint List, as the Arab parties did in previous elections. The four parties – which have the power to tip the balance when it comes to building a government coalition – remain divided over whether they would be willing to join a coalition led by the winning Jewish Zionist party.
The Gaza war and the lack of action to tackle the organized crime and gun violence tearing apart Arab society, Zbeedat noted, is likely to drive more Palestinian citizens of Israel to the polls than in years past.
In her reporting, she said, she has spoken to Arab Israelis who have ideologically boycotted elections in the past and “now want to vote – but more out of desperation, out of despair and out of fear, rather than faith in the election and democracy.”
Find the latest projections from Haaretz's 2026 election poll tracker
Read more:
Analysis: A Reality Check for Netanyahu's Delusional Post-Election Unity Ploy
Analysis: For Arabs, the Ballot Box Is the Last Resort to Tackle Israel's Crime Epidemic
Majority of Israel's First-time Voters Believe Their Ballot Can Change the Country, Poll Shows
Arab Parties Mull Partial Joint List as Rifts Over Joining anti-Netanyahu Coalition Continue
Jewish-Arab Movement Standing Together Launches Knesset Run With Party Built on 'Politics of Hope'
'The Jews Turned Against Us, Even the Leftists': The Bedouin City Poised to Play Kingmaker in Israel's Election
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For the Australian Jewish community, the date of December 14 carries as much gut-wrenching trauma as October 7 and September 11 does for Israelis and Americans, Daniel Hochberg, co-chair of the Union for Progressive Judaism's board, told the Haaretz Podcast.
On the six-month anniversary of the terrorist shooting attack on 1,000 Jews celebrating Hanukkah on Bondi Beach that killed 15 members of the tight-knit community, Hochberg and Haaretz editor Noa Levin reviewed the aftermath of the second most deadly attack in Australian history and its ongoing effect on the country’s politics and daily life for Australian Jews.
“We don't feel safe as we did before,” Hochberg said, describing an increased “closing of spaces” to Jews who once felt part of progressive circles. “It has affected our sense of self-worth, our belief in our contribution to Australia is in question, and we are struggling with that. Our walls are being built higher and higher, so there's this feeling that the Jewish community, by almost default, is being isolated from the rest of Australian society.”
On the podcast, Hochberg and Levin discussed the controversial formation and the ongoing testimony of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, the national inquiry of the Bondi attacks which is focusing on growing antisemitic discourse in Australia, and the political impact of the attack inside and outside the Jewish community.
The “totally unimaginable” violent attack and the Jewish community’s reaction, Levin noted, has sparked a conversation among young Jews regarding “who gets to speak for us at a national and international level, and what recommendations would all kinds of Jews like to see to ensure their safety in Australia,” while “touching on the intersection between criticism of Israel and antisemitism.”
The Bondi attack, she said “has made the community incredibly sensitive to anything that looked, felt or smelt like something that could harm us, and that they have a right to do that, but I think it created something quite challenging in terms of discourse about Israel.”
Read more:
'Reckoning Without Consequence Is Performance': Australian Jews Cautiously Welcome Antisemitism Inquiry Findings
Australia's Historic National Inquiry Into Antisemitism, Explained
How a Portrait of an Australian Jewish Leader Humanizes an Anguished Community
The Australian Film About Jewish Fear and Unease Shot in Bondi Before the Massacre
Despite a Moderate Downturn, Antisemitic Incidents in Australia Remained High for Second Year Running
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In a special investigation on a "revolution" that has taken place over the past three years, Haaretz reporters Yarden Michaeli, Matan Golan and Yaniv Kubovich detailed the push to restore and drastically expand Israeli presence in the northern West Bank that was part of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan in 2005.
On the Haaretz Podcast, Michaeli discusses how the settler movement and far-right politicians have spent the 20 years since the disengagement took place planning how to execute their "return" to four West Bank settlements located in the largest contiguous area of Palestinian population in the area.
With the ascent of the most far-right government in history in 2022, members of the movement have used their power and influence in what is essentially "the settlers' government" to "return big time," Michaeli said.
In the newly published Haaretz investigation, "Undoing History," Michaeli and his team reveal how 18 new settlements and eight new army bases are cutting through the largest contiguous Palestinian population in the West Bank.
The comprehensive effort includes military deployments, new bases and checkpoints, road construction, land expropriations, the displacement of more than 32,000 residents from three refugee camps and the terrorizing of daily Palestinian life in what senior military officials warn could destabilize an already volatile region.
Every aspect of the plan, Michaeli warned, is "bad news" and "harmful" to the Palestinians living there, and that the infrastructure in place "will be very hard to remove" – undermining the Oslo Accords and the possibility of a two-state solution.
Read more:
Undoing History: As the World Watched Gaza, Settlers Charged Ahead in the West Bank. A Clash Is Imminent
Foreign Ministry Rejects Smotrich's Claim He Axed 1997 Hebron Accord With PA, as Israel Takes Municipal Powers From Palestinians
How Israel Is Using Archaeology to Advance West Bank Annexation
Former PM Ehud Olmert: Israel Is Conducting a Systematic Campaign of Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in the West Bank
'Nobody's Born a Soldier': The Israeli Teens Refusing the Military Draft Say They Can Take the Backlash
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As Israelis focused on the life-and-death issues around conflicts with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, the Netanyahu government has slowly but steadily progressed in its campaign to eliminate the gatekeepers of liberal democracy in order to consolidate the power of elected politicians, constitutional law expert Prof. Adam Shinar told the Haaretz Podcast.
The steps it has taken were “not exactly the package” of radical reforms it proposed in 2023 that brought hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets, Shinar said, but they are firmly marching Israel in the direction of a weakened judiciary, civil service and media, by putting more power in the hands of the ruling parties.
Initially, after October 7, the push for a judicial coup ground to a halt. But as the war continued, explained Shinar, a professor at Reichman University, changes were still made – if not directly through legislation, then by the appointment of Netanyahu loyalists in key positions.
"The government saw an opening. It said, 'Hey, we can do many, many things. The public is distracted, the public is concerned about other things, and we can do a lot.”
If Netanyahu remains in power after the fall elections, Shinar predicted, the push for a total judicial overhaul will return “on steroids.”
To succeed in moving Israel further from the democracy he emphasized, "You don't have to dismantle everything, it's enough that you dismantle several key components – limiting judicial review and changing the way the attorney general is appointed. … That's 60 to 70 percent of the way.”
Read more:
Haaretz Explainer: What Are the Judicial Overhaul Bills About, and Can the High Court Strike Them Down?
With the Election Clock Ticking, Netanyahu's Coalition Is Pushing Contentious Judicial Overhaul Bills
Anti-government Protests Take Place Across Israel, Five Arrested
Knesset Grants Likud Lawmaker Immunity After She Exposed Identity of Shin Bet Agent
When Roman Gofman Came to Israel, He Was a 'Stinking Russian.' Now He's Set to Head the Mossad
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Israel is in a strategically weakened position – and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take a hard political hit if reports on the details of U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding are accurate, Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer said on the Haaretz Podcast.
Netanyahu had been “riding high,” planning to face Israel’s upcoming elections in the fall having compensated for his failures that led to October 7 by boldly “reconfiguring the map of the Middle East, and disassembling Iran's proxy network of Hezbollah and Hamas, and taking on the Iranian regime itself,” Leifer said.
The Israeli leader thought “his legacy [would] be rehabilitated by those wars. Fast forward to where we are now, and that's not the case, and he’s having to confront that,” Leifer added. “Strategically, Israel's in a terrible place, where the Iranian regime is stronger than it was, and it is now able to enforce a new kind of equation where Israeli freedom of movement is limited by the potential threat of ballistic missiles from Iran – which wasn't the case prior to October 7.”
Netanyahu, Leifer said, has been “backed into a corner” on all of Israel’s fronts – Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and now Iran. He must follow Trump’s dictates and has turned Israel into “a total vassal state of the U.S.” and “Trump’s lapdog.” If he were to defy Trump, he runs the risk of losing American support, which could endanger the country even more.
Read more:
What You Need to Know About the U.S.-Iran Deal – and What It Means for Israel
Report: Billions in Frozen Iranian Assets May Be Released Under U.S.–Iran Deal
Israeli Withdrawal From Lebanon Not Part of U.S.-Iran Deal, White House Official Says
'Don't Bullshit Us, Trump': Netanyahu Loyalists Rage at 'Treacherous' United States Over Iran Deal
Netanyahu Says Israel to Remain in Security Buffer Zones in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria After U.S.-Iran Deal Signed
Amos Harel: The Iran Fiasco Is Netanyahu's Biggest Failure Since October 7
Read more analysis from Haaretz's Joshua Leifer
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