Unholy: Two Jews on the News

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Israel's 78th Independence Day arrives in the shadow of a three-year war — and a nation more divided than ever. As US-Iran talks stall and the Lebanon ceasefire holds by a thread, Yonit and Jonathan take stock of where Israel stands: from the parallel ceremonies splitting the country, to Rahm Emanuel's seismic break from past support for Israeli military aid, to Ezra Klein's "one state reality" argument — and why Yonit thinks it misses half the picture.

Then: a joyful detour. Adeena Sussman, author of the forthcoming Zariz: 100 Easy, Breezy, Tel Aviv-y Recipes, joins to talk about cooking through a war, the fusion of Jewish and Israeli identity on the plate, and why every pot of Sabbath stew is a political act.

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🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
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Jonathan Freedland
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Rachel Goldberg-Polin has stood before the UN, met with presidents, and worn a number on her chest every single day until there were no more hostages in Hamas captivity. Now, months after Hersh was murderd, she sat down and wrote a book.

When We See You Again is not a hostage story and not a political reckoning. It is, as Rachel describes it, a painful love story — a grief memoir written "with one finger from underneath a truck," with no distance, no perspective, and no pretense that any of that is coming soon.

In this conversation with Yonit and Jonathan, Rachel talks about the moment a released hostage told her Hersh had heard her voice in captivity, why she refused to name the officials who promised and delivered nothing, the 87 pages she cut and called "the suitcase," and how Hersh's memory will become a "revolution for go.”

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Yonit Levi
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Jonathan Freedland
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As Israel marks one week out of 40 days of missiles from Iran, Yonit and Jonathan take apart the week's impossible contradictions: Netanyahu delivering a triumphalist Yom HaShoah speech while 400 kilograms of enriched uranium remain intact in Iran; a fragile Lebanon ceasefire that almost no one trusts; 40 Democratic senators voting against arms transfers; and Italy's far-right prime minister — until now Israel's last ally in Europe — quietly moving toward the exit.

They also clock a historic election in Hungary, what Orban's fall means for the Israeli opposition, and whether Gadi Eisenkot is the figure who finally changes the picture.

 

CHAPTERS: [00:00] Intro

 [02:30] Two kinds of sirens — explaining Yom HaShoah to kids during active war 

[05:00] Yom HaShoah: the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and why Israel chose this date 

[06:00] The war breakfast menu — 40 days and no off switch 

[08:44] Iran ceasefire: fragile, murky, and far from over 

[14:42] Netanyahu's Holocaust Day speech — and what it got wrong 

[20:47] Israeli elections: Eisenkot, Bennett, and the Orban lesson from Hungary

 [27:00] Democrats break with Israel: Slotkin, 40 Senate votes, and who lost America 

[33:45] Italy's Meloni shifts — even the far-right is moving 

[40:41] Chutzpah Award: JD Vance tells the Pope to be careful about theology 

[43:30] Mensch Award: Parents Circle joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony

 

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Yonit Levi
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Jonathan Freedland
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📩 Contact: [email protected]
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Day 40 of the US-Israel war on Iran — and it's ceasefire. But the relief is complicated: Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah in Lebanon has already shifted the world's anger from Washington back to Jerusalem.

Bret Stephens, opinion columnist at the New York Times and one of the conflict's most prominent intellectual defenders, joins Yonit and Jonathan to take stock — was it worth it, what was actually achieved, and what does an inconclusive ending mean for Israel's standing with a younger American generation that's turning away.

Then: the death penalty bill that slipped through the Knesset on Erev Pesach. Dr. Amir Fuchs of the Israeli Democracy Institute was inside those committee rooms. He explains what passed and who it targets.

⏱ CHAPTERS: 

[00:00] Ceasefire — Yonit wakes up after 40 nights of sirens in Tel Aviv 

[02:10] Kids, lunchboxes, and parenting during wartime 

[05:45] Why Israel is now the global target instead of Trump

[19:24] Bret Stephens: Was the Iran war worth it? 

[23:11] Senior Israeli official admits objectives weren't achieved 

[26:23] Iran's nuclear program — degraded, not destroyed 

[29:52] The Strait of Hormuz: Iran's trump card 

[34:08] Israel's American support — how worried should we be? 

[37:07] Israel's intelligence credibility post-October 7th 

[40:33] Young Americans and the erosion of support for Israel 

[54:28] Dr. Amir Fuchs — inside the Knesset committee rooms What the death penalty bill actually says 

[1:02:30] Will the Supreme Court strike it down? 

[1:06:42] Ben-Gvir's trap — win-win by design 

[1:10:36] Yonit: Judaism doesn't celebrate death 

[1:11:53] Jonathan: the synagogue sermon about spilling wine on Passover 

[1:14:38] Hungary elections — Orban vs. Magyar 

[1:16:52] Chutzpah Award: Kanye West banned from Britain 

[1:21:25] Mensch: Colette Avital, 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, still protesting 

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🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
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Jonathan Freedland
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Day 39 of the war. Pesach. Instead of news, we brought you books — two of them, both essential.

Jonathan speaks with Daniel Taub, former Israeli ambassador to the UK and author of Beyond Dispute: Rediscovering the Jewish Art of Constructive Disagreement — about why Jewish argument culture might be the most relevant thing in the world right now, and how families torn apart over Gaza might actually talk to each other.

Yonit speaks with Yardena Schwartz, award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer, author of Ghosts of a Holy War — about the 1929 Hebron massacre, and why this nearly-forgotten event explains almost everything about the conflict today.

Two books. Two conversations. One mid-week treat while we wait for whatever comes next.

 

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🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY
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🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
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X: https://x.com/LeviYonit
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Jonathan Freedland
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Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

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

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