Unholy: Two Jews on the News

A US-Iran deal appears to be taking shape — and Israel isn't in the room. As diplomatic back-channels buzz and American strikes on Iran continue under a ceasefire that apparently requires bombing to maintain, Netanyahu finds himself watching from the outside: no seat at the table, no answers on the nuclear file, no movement on proxies. Meanwhile, two hostage parents — whose sons were held in Gaza at the same time — are entering Israeli politics from opposite ends of the spectrum, a story that says more about where the country is heading than any poll. Plus: the Caroline Glick appointment, the Israel Solidarity Parade in New York, antisemitism in London's British Museum, and a Chutzpah award for a congressman whose concession speech managed to be both funny and deeply troubling.

This week's Mensch of the Week will leave you wanting to move to Tel Aviv.

Note: The name of the Republican congressman challenged by Dan Bilzerian in Florida is, in fact, Randy Fine.

Watch us on Youtube: https://youtu.be/HB5rkBNCeEY

💛 Become a friend of the pod:
Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon
🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.lovable.app/
📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/
X: https://x.com/unholypod
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/
X: https://x.com/LeviYonit
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/
Jonathan Freedland
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]
🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Franklin Foer is the man who declared that the golden age of American Jewry is over - or at least ending. Two years on — in the aftermath of October 7th and the Gaza war, collapsing bipartisan support for Israel, a wave of antisemitism from both left and right, and a military misadventure in Iran — he thinks he underestimated the problem.

This week, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with Foer, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the landmark piece that became required reading in Jewish communities across America. They discuss whether the anti-AIPAC pledge that has become a feature of Democratic primaries is classical antisemitism in new clothing; how a forgotten Jewish genius from Odessa might explain what American Jews are supposed to do now; and why Foer refuses — loudly — to bow to fatalism.

Also: Bob Dylan's existential crisis, Abraham Joshua Heschel's ode to the Sabbath, and how soccer helps explain at least one aspect of modern Jewish life.

Guest: Franklin Foer, staff writer, The Atlantic

⏱ CHAPTERS:

[00:00] Intro — Franklin Foer joins Unholy, The golden age Jewish Americans, what it was, why it's ending

[04:46] The Impact of October 7th on American Jews

[11:25] The Connection Between Israel and American Jewish Identity

[22:32] Fatalism vs. persuasion — the Cold War argument 

[28:35] How do you persuade non-Jews that antisemitism is bad for them?

[32:56] Top 3 Jewish Americans: Pichelis, Dylan, Heschel

🎙️ Unholy — honest conversations with people who have something real to say

Watch us on YouTube:

Follow Unholy and learn more about the pod: https://unholy-podcast.lovable.app/

Join our Patreon community to get access to bonus episodes, discounts on merch and more: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company.

💛 Become a friend of the pod:
Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon
🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.lovable.app/
📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/
X: https://x.com/unholypod
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/
X: https://x.com/LeviYonit
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/
Jonathan Freedland
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]
🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week Jonathan is in celebratory mode—and no, it's not only because it’s the festival of Shavuot, but because his beloved Arsenal finally won the Premier League, sparking a spontaneous tribal gathering of ‘marauding revellers’ in North London.

Meanwhile, Yonit and Jonathan unpack the volatile situation with Iran, and ask where President Trump’s vague threats of a renewed strike are heading.

Then, it's wall-to-wall condemnation for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose grotesque 56-second video taunting Gaza flotilla detainees was a nightmare for Israel’s defenders especially.

And Jonathan describes his visit to the Nova exhibition in London, which offers a powerful, heart-rending glimpse of the human faces of the October 7th massacre and the shocking refusal of much of the world to look directly at what happened on that day. Plus: a musical mensch for the ages.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRENGUF2AAI

 

⏱ CHAPTERS:

[00:00] Shavuot: Celebrating the Unsung Holiday 

[09:20] Iran's Threats and Trump's Unpredictability

[17:00] Israeli Politics: Elections and Coalition Dynamics

[23:12] Ben-Gvir's Controversial Video: A PR Nightmare for Israel 

[29:15] The Political Landscape in Israel

[39:02] The Impact of the Nova Exhibition

[45:30] Chutzpah and Mench

 

💛 Become a friend of the pod:
Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon
🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.lovable.app/
📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/
X: https://x.com/unholypod
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/
X: https://x.com/LeviYonit
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/
Jonathan Freedland
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]
🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two and a half years after October 7th, the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children has published its comprehensive report — 300 pages of meticulously corroborated evidence documenting what was done to women, men, children, and hostages on that day and in captivity since. This week, Yonit and Jonathan speak with Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the founder and chair of the Commission, 2024 Israel Prize laureate, and expert in international law and human rights — the woman who spent more than two years immersed in 10,000 photographs and videos and 430 testimonies so the world could not look away.

They discuss what the evidence reveals about the scale and calculated nature of the atrocities, why so many feminist organisations around the world fell silent, the new legal concept of “kinocide” that the Commission had to coin because no existing term could capture what had happened to families — and what it means that the person who stared deepest into this abyss still believes in peace.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpNOrhqCJ6E

00:00 Introduction

00:43 The scale and scope of the evidence

02:55 The 13 documented patterns of abuse

06:18 What Hamas intended — terrorizing a nation for generations

09:15 How the evidence points to deliberate strategy, not random violence

10:50 Coining “kinocide” — when existing legal language wasn’t enough

14:21 Destroying family bonds: the most intimate atrocities

16:26 Gathering evidence when so much was destroyed and victims were silenced

19:39 Institutional denial — UN Women, Judith Butler, and feminist silence

22:30 Why colleagues looked away: antisemitism and dehumanization

24:38 The report as legal and historical document

27:46 The New York Times report and the question of diversion

31:07 The personal toll — two and a half years immersed in the evidence

34:15 Can this wound ever heal?

35:21 After everything: still a believer in peace

💛 Become a friend of the pod:
Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon
🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.lovable.app/
📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/
X: https://x.com/unholypod
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/
X: https://x.com/LeviYonit
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/
Jonathan Freedland
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]
🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Yonit and Jonathan discuss a week brimming with unresolved questions. Did Benjamin Netanyahu really travel to the UAE during the war with Iran? Why would he leak it now, and what led the UAE to issue such a quick denial? After a trip to China, where is Donald Trump heading on Iran?

And inside Israel, as the political drama intensified with United Torah Judaism threatening to break ranks with the coalition over the draft bill's failure, could elections be held in September? And what role could be played by a possible plea bargain for Netanyahu?

Finally, there’s a crowded field for our mensch award this week – who will come out in front: a 100 year old international treasure or a newborn baby?

Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7QkyKrD0Km0?si=LrarQpAPjOBhB2WS

 

David Attenborough Tribute: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYFyK6boqC2/

 

⏱ CHAPTERS:

[00:00] Intro — Netanyahu, Trump, and the week in news

[00:43] Yonit's book in Hebrew — "Don't Feed the Lion" lands in Israel

[05:13] Jonathan's Jewish tour of Porto — and the cross that means Jewish house

[09:29] Netanyahu's secret UAE visit — what really happened

[13:10] The UAE denial — implausible deniability explained

[15:10] Iran ceasefire suspended animation — everyone preparing for the next round

[16:01] Trump in China — could Beijing unlock the Iran deal?

[17:20] Lebanon vs. Iran at the UN — the embryo of a new Middle East

[20:13] Israeli elections — United Torah Judaism breaks with Netanyahu

[22:36] Will Netanyahu even run? The plea deal question

[24:10] Western Wall bill — criminalizing non-orthodox practice

[27:15] Gaza: Hamas not disarming, humanitarian aid down 37%

[33:38] Nick Kristof's NYT piece — the controversy explained

[40:40] Chutzpah: Miki Zohar blames October 7th on Bennett-Lapid

[43:02] Mensch: Tom Holland on antisemitism

[44:20] Mensch: David Attenborough turns 100

[46:48] Mensch: Abe Foxman, the last Jewish pope

[47:30] Baby Aviv — Unholy's first baby 🎉

💛 Become a friend of the pod:
Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon
🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.lovable.app/
📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/
X: https://x.com/unholypod
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/
X: https://x.com/LeviYonit
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/
Jonathan Freedland
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]
🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.