‘Settler violence is out of control': How a 'perfect storm' of IDF-backed attacks and Israel's extremist government is terrorizing the West Bank
Olive harvest season has become a flashpoint in the West Bank in recent years as extremist Israeli settlers regularly threaten and physically harm Palestinian harvesters, but this year, “the situation on the ground is out of control,” Anton Goodman of Rabbis for Human Rights said on the Haaretz Podcast. “We have never seen anything like this,” Goodman emphasized, noting that in the past, “We've seen settler attacks, and we've seen unnecessary army aggression and restrictions, but we've never seen such a peak moment of violence affecting so many communities.” Goodman described the situation as a “perfect storm” with “extremists at the heart of the Israeli government, who have sent clear policy recommendations to the police” to refrain from arresting violent settlers so that “the rule of law is totally diminished.” He also outlined the ways in which mainstream Religious Zionist institutions and their leaders are complicit – such as when the prominent rabbi Yaakov Medan encouraged his yeshiva students to spend the High Holidays at outposts that are illegal even under Israeli law. Also on the podcast, Leila Stillman-Utterback recounts her experience as an 18-year-old Jewish American volunteer who was recently arrested at an olive harvest and then deported and banned from Israel for 10 years. While Israel has deported non-Jewish solidarity volunteers for years, Stillman-Utterback’s case is believed to be the first time Israel has deported a Diaspora Jew from the West Bank. Speaking from the United States, Stillman-Utterback said a court challenge to banning her entry to Israel is underway. Maintaining her connection to Israel, she said, is “incredibly important to me, even though I am extremely frustrated with the actions of the Israeli government, both in terms of the impunity for settler violence and their actions in Gaza.” Read more: Erased: Israeli Settlers' Brutal War on Palestinian Communities in the West Bank IDF Reports Surge in West Bank Settler Attacks Against Palestinians, Says Police and Shin Bet Looking Away Amid Political Pressure 'We May Have Reached the Point Where Settlers Try to Kill Jews' Analysis | There Will Be No Middle East Peace if Trump Turns a Blind Eye to Wild Settler Violence in the West Bank Op-ed by Anton Goodman: How Israel's Violent West Bank Settlers Place Minors in the Line of FireSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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‘I couldn't vote for Trump, but I'm glad he won’: Top Jewish podcaster Jonah Platt on Israel, Gaza and antisemitism in America
After October 7, actor, singer and writer Jonah Platt pivoted away from his entertainment career and poured all of his energy into what until then had been his “side hustle” – advocating for more “joyful” portrayals of Jews in Hollywood, and broadening his focus to include pro-Israel advocacy and fighting antisemitism. Platt joins the Haaretz Podcast where he discusses his own top-ranked Jewish podcast aimed at what he calls the “middle majority” of American Jews – engaging in pro-Israel advocacy while not hiding his misgivings and ambivalence about both U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This, he tells podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, has drawn both admiration and attacks from across the political spectrum in the Jewish community and beyond. Platt notes that the criticism he gets from the Jewish left “mimics the hate that I get from non-Jews on the left, which is that I'm a nepo baby genocidal baby killer” while the attacks from the MAGA Jewish right “feels more like getting it from my own team.” On the podcast, Platt also shares his views on conflicts within Jewish families over the Gaza war – including his own – and why he believes so many young New York Jews voted for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Read more: Paramount Studios Reportedly Keeps Internal Blacklist of Antisemitic Industry Figures Pledge to Boycott Israeli Film Institutions Grows to Over 4,000 Signatories Since Monday Israeli Artists React to Filmmakers' Boycott: 'We Aren't Doing Enough' Uncanceled Nation: The Artists Who Perform in Israel, Despite Everything Debra Messing, Liev Schreiber Among 1,200 Hollywood Figures Opposing Israeli Film BoycottSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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A leak, a cover-up and the battle for Israel’s rule of law: the Sde Teiman Affair explained
The scandal rocking Israel’s military justice system has “serious ramifications” that could undermine the country both internally and in its ability to address accusations of war crimes overseas, Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer said on the Haaretz Podcast. Shamir-Borer, who served for over 20 years in the IDF Military Advocate General's Corps, and currently heads the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for National Security and Democracy, said he was “personally and professionally shocked” by the admission of now-former Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi. She was arrested and is now in detention after she admitted to leaking video documentation from July 2024 of IDF soldiers physically and sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention camp. Tomer-Yerushalmi is likely facing charges of participating in a cover-up of the leak, which involved misleading both the State Prosecutor’s office and the Supreme Court. On the podcast, Shamir-Borer, with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, lays out the dramatic events behind what’s being called the Sde Teiman Affair – and how the affair that “shocked him on so many levels” unfolded in his former military unit. The affair, he fears, will both boost the power of those in the Netanyahu government working “trying to undermine the independence and professionalism of the justice system,” as well as “undermine the credibility of the IDF justice system overseas with serious repercussions for Israel and for those in its military service.” Read more: Haaretz Explains | Two Leaks, Two Tales: Why the Prisoner Abuse Video Leak and the Bild Hamas Document Are Different How the IDF Legal Chief Drama Overshadows the Abuse of Palestinian Prisoners IDF Probe Into Sde Teiman Video Leak May Disrupt Abuse Investigation, Legal Sources Say Ex-IDF Top Lawyer Sticks to Story in Initial Police Interrogation on Leaked Abuse Video Israel Released Palestinian Detainee Allegedly Seen in Leaked Abuse Video Back to Gaza We Served on Israel's Sde Teiman Base. Here's What We Did to Gazans Detained ThereSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Who’s afraid of Zohran Mamdani? How the mayoral race divided Jews in New York
The prospect of a New York City mayor who “won’t march in the Israel Day Parade, will not travel to Israel, who will divest from Israel” with a history of pro-Palestinian advocacy has brought many Jews to a place of “caution and worry” as they choose the city’s next leader, New York political reporter Jacob Kornbluh said on the Haaretz Podcast. At the same time, he stressed, despite the “fear campaign” that Jewish leaders and rabbis pursued against the 34-year-old Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a large number of Jewish New Yorkers were casting their ballots for the man poised to make history as the city’s first Muslim mayor. Leading up to Election Day, Kornbluh noted “a changing mood among Jewish voters who say they disagree with Mamdani” and were “worried” about his positions on Israel – but “since they hate [Independent candidate] Andrew Cuomo, since they are Democrats, and since they want to participate in this election, they will hold their nose and vote for Mamdani.” University administrator Dov Scheindlin, who is voting for Mamdani, also spoke with host Allison Kaplan Sommer on the podcast and explained the reasons for his choice despite disagreeing with the candidate on issues related to Israel. “On a personal level, I feel Mamdani’s demonstrated a tremendous commitment to the Jews of New York City,” Scheindlin said, attributing the candidate’s stated position as a reflection of his “sympathy with the Palestinians and a sense that the cause of Palestinian self-determination has been inhibited by the unfettered support for Israel the United States has offered.” Join Haaretz and meet our journalists at the Other Israel Film Festival, running from November 6-13 in New York City. Use the code haaretz25 at checkout for 20 percent off admission. View the event schedule and buy tickets here. Read more: Rabbi Angela Buchdahl Slams Zohran Mamdani's Past Remarks as Antisemitic, 'Demonizing' Israelis NYC Candidates Court Final Endorsements as Hasidic Leaders Criticize 'Scare Campaign' Against Mamdani Cuomo Faces Backlash in New York Mayoral Race After 'Racist' Attack on Rival Mamdani Opinion | I Oppose Mamdani's Stance on Israel. This Is Why I Am Voting for HimSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Inside the Israeli media’s ‘shocking self-censorship’ of the horrors of Gaza
Throughout the Gaza war, the tremendous difference between international coverage and Israeli media coverage was obvious to anyone exposed to both. In a new report, media scholar Dr. Ayala Panievsky’s research quantifies precisely how pronounced that difference was. On the Haaretz Podcast, she said the silencing of dissent in Israel’s mainstream media was unprecedented. “The professional journalists, people who Israelis spend their entire lives trusting to tell them the truth, rallied around the military in many ways – any criticism of what our soldiers were doing was just out of bounds. It wasn't part of the conversation.” In past coverage of war and conflict, she stressed, “there was no such silencing of any criticism and alternative voices,” attributing the difference to the tremendous amount of pressure by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on media outlets in recent years. "The Netanyahu camp declared war on the media a decade ago. And when the war in Gaza broke, the mainstream media was already very much undermined, intimidated and exhausted.” In her conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Panievsky, author of “The New Censorship: How the War on the Media is Taking Us Down,” also discussed how the phenomenon of self-censorship is plaguing journalism worldwide. In many countries, she said, authoritarian leaders “claim to speak on behalf of democracy” while “doing everything to undermine journalism and its role in society. … This is something very, very confusing, and difficult to tackle. Join Haaretz and meet our journalists at the Other Israel Film Festival, running from November 6-13 in New York City. Use the code haaretz25 at checkout for 20 percent off admission. View the event schedule and buy tickets here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
From Haaretz – Israel's oldest daily newspaper – a weekly podcast in English on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World, hosted by Allison Kaplan Sommer.
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