Haaretz Podcast

With Israeli elections set for October 27, Iran is increasingly pairing its military actions with aggressive online campaigns designed to sow chaos and conflict – alongside ongoing efforts to recruit Israelis as spies, Haaretz cyber and disinformation correspondent Omer Benjakob warned on the Haaretz Election Podcast, in a roundtable with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer and correspondent Linda Dayan.
“We’ve let the digital arena fester,” Benjakob said, in a stinging critique of the way in which Israel’s vaunted security services have dropped the ball in online foreign influence that has now been “supercharged” by AI.
One of the reasons the phenomenon has been difficult to combat is because “nine times out of 10, you can’t differentiate between a pro‑Iranian campaign and a pro‑Netanyahu campaign,” he added, noting that Israel’s prime minister and his far-right ruling coalition and the country’s enemies, he noted, have a stake in maximizing extremism and division in the months leading up to Election Day.
In their review of the week’s political headlines, the Election Podcast panel also discussed U.S. Democratic presidential hopefuls Rahm Emanuel, who addressed Israelis in Tel Aviv last week, and Ro Khanna, who was detained by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the southern West Bank – and the rise of former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot in the polls and the nature of the threat he poses to Netanyahu.
Eisenkot appeals to voters who identify as right-wing and voted Likud in the past, but are seeking a “sane right” this time around, Dayan observed. “He offers a security‑heavy, ‘big Z’ Zionist party” that, unlike Likud, “isn’t embarrassing itself by unleashing very loud but not very content‑rich people onto the public.”
Read more:
Iran's Other Weapon: How Israel Woke Up Late to the Threat of Election Interference
Gadi Eisenkot Is Quietly Gaining Ground Inside Likud Territory. Will It Be Enough to Defeat Netanyahu?
Latest Poll Shows ex-IDF Chief Eisenkot's Party Maintaining Lead Over Netanyahu's Likud
'The IDF Is Lying': Rep. Ro Khanna Calls for Arrest of IDF Soldiers He Says Were Involved in His West Bank Detention
Op-ed by Nadav Weiman: I Joined Rep. Ro Khanna on His West Bank Visit. Here's What I Saw
Rahm Emanuel's Tough Love Wins Warm Welcome in Tel Aviv
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The far-right religious Netanyahu government is doing its best to “push away” liberal non-Orthodox American Jews from Israel, said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, leader of the U.S. Reform movement, on the Haaretz Podcast.
“We’re not going away. We’re actually leaning in,” he said. “You can’t trade in non‑Orthodox Jews for evangelical Christians. We’re stuck, you’re stuck with us, we’re stuck with you – we’re the Jewish people.”
During the era of negotiations over the 2016 historic compromise between non-Orthodox movements and the Israeli government over an egalitarian plaza at the Western Wall for mixed-gender prayer, Jacobs said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and the premier’s close advisers – were in regular contact.
Today, he said, “it has been years” since there has been a phone call – let alone a meeting – between the leader of the largest American Jewish membership organization and the Israeli leader – and, nearly a decade after the collapse of the compromise effort, the government is moving legislation through the Knesset that would not only forbid but criminalize egalitarian prayer, as well as women reading Torah and wearing traditionally masculine ritual garments, at the Western Wall.
“It’s not just that you’re going to get hassled: You could literally spend seven years in jail,” said Jacobs, noting that additional proposed laws regarding the Law of Return and conversion, together with the Western Wall bill, “reflects a demonization – not just a difference, but a demonization – of non-Orthodox Jewry.”
On the podcast, Jacobs confronted the deep political challenges facing liberal and progressive American Jews regarding the “shockwaves” in the U.S.-Israel relationship, the spike in antisemitism since October 7 and Israel’s reaction to it.
“There's this notion I hear it all the time, particularly from officials of the Israeli government, which is: ‘They all hate us … Everybody hates Israel. Everybody hates the Jews. So it doesn't matter what we do here, [with] settler violence in the West Bank – if we eradicate that, they'd still hate us. And issues around pluralism and democracy don’t matter, because they'll always hate us.’
“I just would like to bring the view that says actually, it does matter.”
Read more:
Bill Banning Egalitarian Prayer at Western Wall Bound to Face Serious Legal Challenges, Warns Gov't Lawyer
Op-ed by Women of the Wall's Anat Hoffman: Israeli MKs Mull an Evil and Absurd Bill That Promises More Jail Time for Worshippers Than Rapists
Rahm Emanuel's Tough Love Wins Warm Welcome in Tel Aviv
30 Percent of Jewish American Adults Say Israel Committed Genocide in Gaza
Israel's U.S. Envoy Says Minister's Verbal Attack on Reform MK in Knesset Was 'Disgusting'
The Raucous and Roundabout History of Reform Judaism
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Unless something dramatic changes, the upcoming Israeli election will either end in a deadlock or a bold move to “get rid of the foolish self‑imposed arbitrary constraint of not forming coalitions with Arab parties,” political strategist and Haaretz columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin said on the Haaretz Podcast.
With neither the pro-Netanyahu bloc nor the opposition parties coming close to the 61 Knesset seats they would need to take power, Scheindlin said that the Jewish Zionist Israeli parties – likely in the opposition – will be pushed to do what she believes is the right thing.
"Of course, there should be Arab parties in a governing coalition. They are 20 percent of the population. There should be no ban on parties that represent citizens of this country," Scheindlin said.
In the roundtable discussion with Haaretz correspondent Linda Dayan and host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Scheindlin discussed the new iterations of veteran parties on the center right and the left, vying for the voters who would like to see Netanyahu replaced – including those who previously voted for the prime minister and hold center-right views
These parties, Dayan said, are branding themselves as the “sane right” or the “non-schmuck right.” Their main differences with Netanyahu and his ruling coalition come down to drafting ultra-Orthodox young men to the army – and the government’s refusal to create a commission of inquiry on the events of October 7.
Dayan also discussed the phenomenon of family members of former hostages throwing their hats in the ring on “every side of the political spectrum.”
Read more:
How Israel's Soft Right Could Undo the anti-Netanyahu Opposition
Analysis by Dahlia Scheindlin: Can the Most Right-wing Government in Israel's History Lose an Election Over Security?
Analysis by Dahlia Scheindlin: In His Own Words: Naftali Bennett Is Committed to Annexing the West Bank
Arab Israelis Aren't Looking for Token MKs. They're Looking for Genuine Change
In Haifa, the 'Putin Aliyah' and Despairing Arab Citizens Warn of A Dire Future
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brad Lander said on the Haaretz Podcast that his resounding victory in the race for the Democratic nomination for Congress in a New York City district reflected a desire for a "reset in the U.S. relationship with Israel in the Democratic Party voting base – including in one of the most Jewish districts in the country."
Lander won by more than 30 points in New York's 10th District, covering downtown Manhattan and western Brooklyn. His win over AIPAC-endorsed incumbent Dan Goldman was part of the primaries sweep by candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Like the other Mamdani-backed candidates, Lander campaigned on a platform opposing additional U.S. military aid to Israel and condemning AIPAC as being "dangerous." Lander said on the podcast that, once he is in Congress, he will support "steps I think will help shift away from what I see as a catastrophic 'hug Bibi' policy, which both Joe Biden and Donald Trump essentially adopted."
At the same time, he told podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer that he still considers himself a "liberal Zionist" with ties to Israeli peace groups, and that he opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The former NYC comptroller differentiated himself from Mamdani and other members of his progressive camp who do not recognize Israel as a Jewish state and oppose nearly all 'normalized' contact with Israeli representatives.
"When people hear I will sign on to the Block the Bombs Act, and that I won't vote in favor of additional U.S. military aid to Israel while it is violating Palestinian human rights and international law, people think that's someone who has joined the 'Israel haters.' But I promise you I haven't.
"What I want is a path toward rebuilding Gaza under Palestinian leadership, an end to settler violence and meaningful negotiations toward mutual recognition," he said. "I'm very clear about my politics. You can check my mentions – I get called a 'Zionist baby killer' in my mentions as often as I get called a 'kapo.' So people know who I am."
Read more:
Why Israelis Should Stop Being Afraid of Mamdani-backed Brad Lander
Mamdani-backed Candidates Sweep New York Democratic Primary, With Israel as Fault Line
New York's Primaries Send a Clear Message: Democrats Must Reckon With Israel and AIPAC
Dan Goldman Says Support for Israel Cost Him New York Democratic Primary
Israel Critic Scores Major Democratic Primary Upset as Progressive Wave Reaches Colorado
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.