Ask Haviv Anything
"Ask Haviv Anything" is a podcast about history, shaped and directed by listeners. It covers big and painful topics, as well as beautiful and fascinating ones, including wars, identities, and painful history. Humor is also a key element, especially when facing tough subjects. The podcast is hosted by Haviv Rettig Gur.
Episodes
122: When will the war with Iran end?
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).--Welcome to our new short-form episodes i
121: Who blinks first? The battle for Hormuz, with Rich Goldberg
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).—Is Trump winning or losing the negotiatio
120: Sam Harris on tribalism, religion, and what actually saves us
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).—Haviv sits down with philosopher, neurosc
119: Canada’s Jewish reckoning, with Prof. Gil Troy
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything ), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/ ), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur ).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/ ) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur ).—Historian Gil Troy joins the podcast
118: Is Israel a settler-colonial state? A historian’s honest answer, with Alex Yakobson
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything ), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/ ), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur ).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/ ) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur ).—Was the Zionist-Arab encounter alway
117: The Palestinian insider who thinks Hamas is losing, with Samer Sinijlawi
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).--Longtime Fatah activist Samer Sinijlawi
116: Simon Sebag Montefiore on the History — and Future — of British Jews
What does it mean to be Jewish in Britain? What happens when centuries of hard-won belonging is suddenly called into question by destabilizing events?In this conversation on history and identity, we sit down with bestselling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore to trace the extraordinary story of British Jewry: from the arrival of Jews with William the Conqueror in 1066, through medieval blood libels
115: Is Nicholas Kristof right?
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).--Welcome to our new short-form episodes i
114: Why don’t we talk about Egypt?
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).--Welcome to our new short-form episodes i
113: Will dumping Israel backfire on the Democrats? A conversation with Hussein Mansour
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).--The Democratic Party is choosing party unity on
112: Why the world Is obsessed with Zionism, with Alana Newhouse
The world feels unmoored. Identity is contested, nations are uncertain, and a technology-altered future feels increasingly abstract and vaguely threatening. So much is happening, so much is at stake. So why is everyone suddenly talking about the Jews?In this episode, Haviv sits down with writer and Tablet magazine founder Alana Newhouse to explore a striking idea: that the global obsession with Zi
111: How Somaliland and Israel became fast friends, with Amb. Mohamed Hagi
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).Be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).--In a world where recognition is said to be a
110: Van Jones on what broke the Black-Jewish alliance
To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).Be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).--A century-long alliance between America's Black
109: The crisis no one is talking about in Canada, with Dr. Casey Babb
Canada has long imagined itself as one of the safest, most tolerant societies on earth. For generations of Jews, it felt that way too. But something has changed, suddenly and profoundly. Synagogues have been shot at. Jewish schools targeted. People are hiding their identities, looking over their shoulder, taking down mezuzahs.In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Casey Babb to ask a question few o
108: How personal grief built a nation
On the eve of Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day, we explore the profound arc of Israel's national remembrance days -- from Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) through Memorial Day, into Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Independence Day), and ending with the quiet, almost unknown commemoration of Theodor Herzl’s yahrzeit. It is an arc of memory, sacrifice, and renewal -- not abstract, but usually personal and intima
107: What does Ezra Klein get wrong?
Welcome to another installment of our short-form episodes that dive into often-asked questions about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current episode tackles the New York Times’ Ezra Klein’s recent video about the “one-state reality” of Israelis and Palestinians, which many listeners have asked us to respond to. We watched it and were disappointed. We ask the question: What does Ezra Klein get
106: After October 7, can Israeli politics be rebuilt? A conversation with Dr. Einat Wilf
A new Israeli election is coming -- and it may reshape everything. In this opening episode of our election series, I sit down with former MK and political thinker Dr. Einat Wilf, now leading the new Oz party, to ask a fundamental question: Has October 7 broken Israeli politics as we knew it? We dive into voter realignment, the possible collapse of old “tribes,” the Haredi draft crisis, and whether
105: Why don’t we talk about Jordan?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: why don’t we talk about Jordan? If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in o
104: The Iran war isn’t over
Everyone’s asking who won. That’s the wrong question. This episode explains why the war isn’t over -- and what the real lessons of this conflict mean for Israel, Iran, and the future of war.--This episode was sponsored by an anonymous sponsor in honor of all those we lost on October 7 and in the ensuing years of war.--If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at ht
103: Why is the two state solution so difficult to achieve?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: why is the two state solution so difficult to achieve? If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on
102: Freedom under missile fire, the Passover story, with Rabbi David Stav
Passover is just around the corner. So we sat down with the ever-wise Rabbi David Stav to dig into the inexplicable contradictions at the heart of the holiday's traditional Seder meal -- and of Jewish life writ large.In the Seder's text, the Hagaddah, we are commanded to declare that “now we are slaves, but next year we shall be free” -- even if we live in freedom and prosperity. And we ar
101: Will Trump finish the job in Iran? With Prof. Dan Schueftan
Trump says a deal may be coming to end the Iran war. Netanyahu says it could protect Israel’s interests. Iran’s regime says little that can be trusted. So what is really happening? Prof. Dan Schueftan returns to the podcast to help us step back from the daily headlines to ask the much bigger question: If this war ends now, who actually wins? And what’s at stake? From the Strait of Hormuz to the id
100: They escaped Europe — then parachuted back in, with Matti Friedman
In 1944, as the gears of the Holocaust turned toward Hungary, 32 young Jewish volunteers did the unthinkable: they parachuted into the genocide. They were a motley bunch, including a celebrated poet and a nearsighted 40-year-old pacifist. They were sent by the British to rescue downed pilots and by the Zionist leadership to save Jews. They stood almost no chance of success, and by every military m
Episode 99: Are we winning?
The rules of engagement just shattered. From the death of Ali Khamenei to the elimination of wartime mastermind Ali Larijani, Iran’s leadership hasn't just been eroded—it’s been erased. As the regime retreats into a fractured "mosaic" of local commanders and a collapsing barter economy, the US-Israeli coalition is pivoting to a final, surgical strike on the regime’s last lifeline: it
Episode 98: What Israel’s founding fathers knew about terrorism, with Dr. Bruce Hoffman
Terrorism scholar Dr. Bruce Hoffman joins the podcast to guide us through one of the most morally explosive chapters in Zionist and Israeli history: the Irgun, Lehi, the British Mandate, and the violent campaign that helped force Britain out of Palestine. Moving from Allenby’s conquest of Jerusalem to the King David Hotel bombing, the Lord Moyne assassination, the hanging of the British sergeants,
Episode 97: Can America and Israel finish the job? A conversation with John Spencer.
What is this war really about, and how does it end? We sit down with warfare scholar John Spencer to explore not just the military campaign itself, but the larger stakes of this war: Whether the US, Israel and their growing list of regional allies will be able and willing (two separate questions) to carry this war to a comprehensive conclusion, one that begins the process, even if it is slow and d
Episode 96: The first war Israel fought in English, with Yaakov Katz
Military analyst Yaakov Katz joins the show to break down the "first Israeli war fought in English" -- a total merger of Israeli and American military might against Iran. From the high-stakes testing of futuristic US weapon systems designed to intimidate China to the "criminal negligence" of Israel's failed PR strategy, Katz exposes how this conflict is a global chess match
Episode 95: The idea that broke the Middle East, with Dr. Micah Goodman
In the middle of war sirens and missile attacks, Haviv Gur sits down with Israeli philosopher Micah Goodman for a sweeping conversation about one of the biggest questions of our time: Why have some societies declined while others thrive? They trace the ideological roots of modern Islamist movements, the “politics of blame” that has hollowed out regimes like Iran, and the deep miscalculation that l
Episode 94: America's war, not Israel's
As missile sirens wail over Jerusalem and families crowd into bomb shelters on the eve of Purim, this episode steps back from the noise and the slogans to ask a harder question: What war are we actually watching? In a moment when pundits argue over Israel, regime change, and partisan loyalties, I lay out a different frame -- two chessboards, one regional and one global -- and argue that what looks
Episode 93: How to win Iran's forever war
The conflict with Iran isn’t just about nukes. It's about a revolutionary martyrdom ideology hiding in plain sight. In this explosive deep dive, we uncover the ideological engine behind the “Muqawama,” the Iran-led "resistance axis" — a fusion of Marx, Mao, martyrdom, and Shiite theology that teaches its followers that suffering is strength and devastation is victory. From Hamas to H
Episode 92: Why does Israel hate UNRWA?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our current question: Why does Israel hate UNRWA?If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our g
Episode 91: Is the Iran war about China? A conversation with Melissa Chen
In this episode, we confront a critical "blind spot" in the Israeli (and too often broader Western) consciousness: The role of the People’s Republic of China as the silent architect behind the Middle East’s most volatile threats. Guest Melissa Chen, managing director at Strategy Risks, pulls back the curtain on a sobering reality where China acts as the sole guarantor of Iran’s survival,
Episode 90: Is it "fascist" to believe a state can belong to a specific people?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our current question: Is it "fascist" to believe a state can belong to a specific people?If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topic
Episode 89: Who benefits from continuing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our current question: Who benefits from continuing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we
Episode 88: America's "24% problem" with young antisemitism, with Jonah Platt
Is American Jewish identity weakening before our eyes? Are American Jews, caught in a whirlwind of hatred directed both at Israel and at the Jews themselves, turning their backs on their Jewish identity?Jonah Platt joins the podcast to talk about the growing numbers of Jews moving in the opposite direction: From quiet assimilation to unapologetic, intentional pride. We confront the sobering data o
Episode 87: How can you support a better Palestinian future?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our current question: How can you support a better Palestinian future?If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the p
Episode 86: Alliances and rivalries in a new Middle East, with Dan Schueftan
The inimitable Prof. Dan Schueftan joins Haviv to break down a "profoundly dangerous" turn in the Middle East. With Saudi Arabia shifting away from its alliance with Israel and the Emirates and Turkey consolidating a "puppet state" in Syria, the regional map is being redrawn. Schueftan warns that the "moderate axis" has blinked, leaving Israel to face a sophisticated Turkish adversary that is ideo
Episode 85: How knowing your story makes you invincible, with Noam Weissman
In these strange times, it is easier than ever for a Jew to learn -- and easier than ever to remain ignorant. We sit down with Dr. Noam Weissman, executive vice president of the educational nonprofit OpenDor Media, to tackle a looming crisis: a generation of Jews who no longer know their own story. From Harvard Law students paralyzed by campus slogans to the staggering reality that 62% of Jewish d
Episode 84: Why soldiers wept when Ran came home, lessons from Tu Bishvat
This week, Israel finally brought home the remains of its last hostage, 24-year-old Ran Gvili. To outsiders, the sheer scale of the national sacrifice and the collective exhalation of relief that followed his return can seem like a mystery. Every nation honors its fallen, but few go to the lengths Israelis do to reclaim a body from the hands of the enemy.In this episode, we use the upcoming holida
Episode 83: From ideology to narcotics, Hezbollah's business model, with Matt Levitt
The fall 2024 Israeli operations that decimated Hezbollah’s missile arsenal and leadership structure marked a pivotal turning point for the Middle East. To understand the wreckage left behind and the organization's resilient global web that is already hard at work helping it to recover, I am joined by Matthew Levitt, one of the world’s leading experts on counterterrorism. Levitt pulls back the
Episode 82: 'From the River to the Sea' - Lost in Translation?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our current question: 'From the River to the Sea' - Lost in Translation?If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cove
Episode 81: Israel's future and the ticking Gaza clock, with Andrew Fox
Andrew Fox is a frontline conflict researcher who has visited Gaza, Syria and Lebanon to study Israeli deployments and strategy there.He joins the podcast to talk about what he calls Israel’s ticking diplomatic clock — the inevitable moment when Israel finds itself where Europe is now: suddenly shorn of American backing and having to navigate an increasingly chaotic region and world. We discuss Is
Episode 80: Who is Hamas and what do they want?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: Who is Hamas and what do they want? If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join
Episode 79: Breaking Iran's machinery of oppression
Iran is burning. The streets are full of marchers demanding an end to the regime. Thousands of protesters have been murdered by the regime in recent days — we may never know exactly how many. President Trump is threatening military action. But is all this enough to bring down the regime?How do you dismantle a revolutionary Islamist government that has proven impervious to domestic protest and inte
Episode 78: Do you still want to globalize the intifada?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: What was the First Intifada? What was the Second Intifada? What does it mean to “globalize the intifada?”If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can a
Episode 77: Did Israel intentionally target civilians in Gaza?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: Did Israel intentionally target civilians in Gaza? If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the
Episode 76: How elites drive Jew-hatred, with Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
From Manchester to Bondi Beach to Denver, from Tucker Carlson to Nicolas Maduro to Zohran Mamdani to the most significant and mobilizing political ideologies of today’s Muslim world, Jews seem to loom large in the imaginations of elites. They’re attacked physically and verbally and politically. The old obsession has well and truly returned.What does this return mean for the future of these societi
Episode 75: Power, fear, and the survival of the Iranian regime, with Roya Hakakian
Iran’s streets are in tumult. The latest protests are of a scale not seen before. New sections of Iranian society are in the streets — middle class merchants, the elderly and others. The protestors have more strident demands than in the past. And a regime that knows its legitimacy has been compromised by rampant corruption, systemic state failure, the collapse of the currency and economy and the 1
Episode 74: Why the global outrage at Israel's Somaliland recognition?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: Why the global outrage at Israel's Somaliland recognition? If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we
Episode 73: Is military aid to Israel a good deal for America?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: Is military aid to Israel a good deal for America? If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the
Episode 72: The women fighters behind the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, with Elizabeth R. Hyman
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising stands as one of the few shining moments of (temporarily) successful Jewish resistance in the bottomless evil and despair that was the Holocaust. Heroes of the uprising like Mordechai Anielewicz and Yitzhak “Antek” Zuckerman form part of the national civic religion of Israeli Jews, and of Jewish commemoration ceremonies worldwide.But the men of the uprising didn’t do it
Episode 71: Why the heck does America support Israel?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: Why the heck does America support Israel?If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast,
Episode 70: The warrior Jews who terrified Rome, with Barry Strauss
Between the outbreak of the Jews’ Great Revolt against Rome in the year 66 CE and the final suppression of the Bar Kochba Revolt in 135, the Jews of the Roman Empire constituted the empire’s single biggest headache. None of the countless conquered peoples controlled by that world power had ever rebelled quite so often or for so long.Jewish memory, largely forged by the rabbinic account of these re
Episode 69: Israel's great divide - An insider's look at the judicial reform, with Moshe Koppel
Until October 7, Israel’s politics were consumed by the fight over the government’s judicial reform proposals. The issue drove hundreds of thousands of Israelis to the streets in protest. It triggered all the anxieties of right and left, to sharpen class and ethnic and cultural divides, to raise fears over minority rights and the future of Israeli democracy.But in all those stormy months, there wa
Episode 68: Antizionism is inherently violent, with Adam Louis-Klein
After the massacre at Bondi Beach, anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein returns to the podcast to help us make sense of the new Jew-hatred.Antizionism, Adam argues, may be a form of hatred of Jews, but it's a far cry from the classical antisemitism of the 19th and 20th centuries. It's also not mere criticism of Israeli policies or governments. So what is it? And how do you fight it?Adam Louis-K
Episode 67: Miracles in the dark. A response to Bondi.
This Hanukkah began in darkness, in the brutal massacre of Jews in Sydney, Australia. Our hearts are broken, but our light is not dimmed.In this episode, we dive into the meaning of Hanukkah in the Jewish tradition and draw lessons from it for these painful times.This episode is sponsored by Donna Silbert and Kevin Foley and dedicated to the memory of Thomas Irwin Glasser. Tom Glasser was murdered
Episode 66: Do BDS campaigns help Palestinians?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: Do BDS campaigns help Palestinians?If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join i
Episode 65: The unseen editors rigging the information war, with Ashley Rindsberg
The internet has democratized information. Or so we are told. The world's knowledge is now at everyone's fingertips. No government and no power structure can gatekeep what everyone sees and hears.But as our lives increasingly move online, we are all discovering just how many forces are at work trying to control and manipulate the flow of information online. The information that comes our w
Episode 64: The Soviet roots of today's antizionism, with Izabella Tabarovsky
Izabella Tabarovsky is a scholar of Soviet antizionism and contemporary antisemitism, a contributor to many books and a senior fellow at the Z3 Institute. Her latest book is “Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student’s Survival Guide.”It’s available here: https://www.amazon.com/Be-Refusenik-Jewish-Students-Survival/dp/B0G2GKWKCJ/ref=zg_m_bs_g_8975368011_m_sccl_1/142-8265824-8567764?psc=1Today we are going
Episode 63: New York in the age of Tucker and Mamdani, with Noam Dworman
Noam Dworman is the owner of the legendary Comedy Cellar comedy club in New York. He a lifelong New Yorker, a podcaster and an astute observer of his city and his country.What does he make of the incoming mayor and his anti-Israel views? What about the rabid new antisemitism on the Carlson-Owens right? And how does he understand the weak responses to both by American Jews?And finally: Will America
Episode 62: Hard times make strong Jews. Live in London with Daniel Schwammenthal.
Today's episode is a very special show which was recorded live on November 10, 2025 at the Finchley United Synagogue - Kinloss in London. Haviv had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Jewish Chronicle Editor Daniel Schwammenthal. We had a great discussion about growing antisemitism in England, the war in Gaza, the possibility of upcoming elections in Israel and the many challenges facing Is
Episode 61: Is criticizing Israel antisemitic?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our current question: Is criticizing Israel antisemitic? If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join
Episode 60: Does it matter what the world thinks? A conversation with Dr. Tal Becker
These are strange times to be a Jew. Jews are in many ways safer and stronger than ever, but face a surge of antisemitism unlike anything seen in generations. This includes a hatred of Jewish collective identity on the progressive left as well as hatred of Jews as Jews in millions of online posts each day and in the mainstream platforming of neo-Nazis like Fuentes and Carroll by the Tucker Carlson
Episode 59: Are Jews indigenous to Israel?
We’re trying something new at AHA: Short-from episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our first question sent in by a listener: Are Jews really indigenous to Israel?If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the
Episode 58: Rebuilding after disaster with ex-hostage Tal Shoham
As Israelis wait with bated breath to discover if the body of Hadar Goldin, killed and taken into Gaza in 2014, will be returned for burial in Israel, we sit down with returned hostage Tal Shoham for a conversation about his harrowing experience and insights into Hamas and Gazan society. Long-time listeners will recognize Tal's name from one of our earliest episodes with his sister-in-law, our
Episode 57: When human rights NGOs fail, with Daniel Balson and Danielle Haas
Human rights organizations help shape the world's understanding of conflicts, including the one between Israelis and Palestinians. Some of the biggest groups, especially Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, are immensely influential in government, the media and civil society in Western countries. And for decades, their expertise, detailed reports and moral reputations made them agents
Episode 56: The industrial revolution of prehistoric Israel, with Tom Levy
Today we step out of the politics and anxious debates of this difficult time and go back 5,500 years to the Chalcolithic, the so-called Copper Age. Our guide is Prof. Tom Levy, eminent archaeologist and emeritus Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego.Tom's new graphic-novel memoir, The Boomer Archaeologist, tell
Episode 55: The real war is not in Gaza, with Dr. Einat Wilf
Trump's peace plan explicitly calls for deradicalization of the Gazan population. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are hoping to take part in Gaza's rebuilding in part so they can help push back against the radical Islamism of Hamas, which those countries see as a larger threat to themselves as well.Can Palestinian society be deradicalized? What might that even mean? Is the problem a reli
Episode 54: Can Israel be both Sparta and Athens? With Dan Schueftan
The Gaza war may now be over. But Hamas remains entrenched in the half of Gaza from which the IDF has withdrawn.Many are hopeful that this marks a new and better day for Gaza, but it's hard to see how Gaza moves forward to the better future envisioned in the Trump peace plan as long as Hamas continues to rule there.Prof. Dan Schueftan, a preeminent and blunt-spoken Israeli national security sc
Episode 53: Telling the Jewish story to the Arab world, with Elhanan Miller
Rabbi Elhanan Miller has half a million online followers, and almost all of them are Arabs. They tune in to his "People of the Book" project on YouTube and other platforms to learn in Arabic about Jewish ideas, customs and holidays, and to hear the testimonies of Jews from the Arab and Muslim worlds who now live in Israel or the West.Elhanan has appeared hundreds of times on Arabic-langu
Episode 52: Why do people hate Jews, with Dara Horn
Dr. Dara Horn, award-winning novelist and scholar of Yiddish and Hebrew literature, joins the podcast to help us dig deep into the Jewish bookshelf, the whirlwind of antisemitism in which so many Jews find themselves, and, unavoidably, into Judaism’s most successful go-to solution for seemingly every problem: Education.We talk about Jewish “anti-literature,” about why people (and museums and polit
Episode 51: Antisemitism and the Black experience
Coleman Hughes is an American writer, host of the podcast Conversations with Coleman, a visiting professor at the University of Austin, and the author of The End of Race Politics.He joins the podcast to talk about America, the Gaza war and the standing of American Jews in American society. A prominent Black thinker who has written and spoken a great deal about race in America, Coleman also helps g
Episode 50: Hostage Deal - A new day for Gaza, a bad day for Hamas
On October 8, President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to his peace and hostage release deal. Israel's tormented hostages will soon be home.The agreement delivers almost everything the pro-Palestinian campaign claimed to want. No Israeli annexation, no Gazans have to leave and any who do can return, and a full rebuilding and rehabilitation under Arab and international
Episode 49: Finding hope in the tunnel of Hamas, with Eli Sharabi
On October 7, 2023, Eli Sharabi's home was surrounded by Hamas terrorists. As he was dragged into Gaza, he shouted to his wife Leanna and two daughters Noiya and Yahel that "no matter what they do to me, I'll be back."It was only in February 2025, as he arrived back in Israel after enduring 491 days of physical and psychological torture at the hands of his captors, that he learned that his family
Episode 48: Two years to October 7
The two-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre falls on the joyous holiday of Sukkot. The Hebrew calendar anniversary will fall on the holiday of Simchat Torah, literally "the Joy of Torah."How do we deal with the juxtaposition of these painful anniversaries, of wounds and anxieties and pain that are very much still with us, and the demand to be happy, to celebrate - or even just to
Episode 47: Building a new Gaza, with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
The day after Trump's release of his 20-point plan for an end to the Gaza war, Haviv sat down with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Palestinian-American analyst and director of the Atlantic Council's Realign for Palestine project, to discuss what it means.Can Hamas really be disarmed and removed from power in Gaza, as the plan envisions? Can an international force in Gaza succeed where the likes of U
Episode 46: The Trump Plan - Hope for Israel and Gaza
Trump's 20-point grand bargain to end the Gaza war is a remarkable document. It offers Israel much of the Israeli cabinet's formally declared war goals, not least the summary release of Israeli hostages from Hamas hands. It seems to enjoy broad Arab backing, and it puts Hamas in the position of having to refuse not merely an end to war, but the beginning, now backed by the US and the Arab
Episode 45: 48 hours in Syria, with David Horovitz
Earlier this month, Times of Israel editor David Horovitz became one of only two or three Israeli journalists to have ever walked the streets of Damascus, Syria’s capital.But he was the very first to be welcomed there with open arms by the Syrian government. His visit with a group of American Jews led by Michigan Rabbi Asher Lopatin was part of the new regime’s efforts to show a new openness to th
Episode 44: Fateful choices to make in the new year, a comment for Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah is the only Jewish holiday that falls on the first day of the lunar month - that begins in darkness. It is also the holiday most associated in Jewish tradition with great turning-points and new beginnings.The coming year will be a time of great change and momentous decisions. Israel will have some fundamental choices to make.This is a reflection on the holiday, on the state of the wa
Episode 43: After Doha, Israel needs a new story
On September 9, Israel tried but failed to kill Hamas leaders in Qatar. The regional blowback surprised the Israelis. Emirati and Saudi leaders, who have long seen Qatar as a foe in the region, visited Doha to express solidarity. Criticism of Israel came not only from the usual suspects, but even from Trump administration officials.Israel, many regional allies now worry, doesn't understand its
מומלץ
Parashat Hashavua - Rabbi Shai Finkelstein
Pod for Israel - Biblical insights from Israel
Rabbi Yoni Fischer Shiurim - Fischer’s Yeshiva
Russian Mommies
Startup for Startup
Streetwise Hebrew
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Unbalanced הבלתי מאוזנים
TrashTech (טראשטק)
VIPODCAST ⋮ יפעת הללי אברהם
What Matters Now
אבא תרחם Father have mercy
