Split decision — reflections on Israel’s verdict

A week after the Democrats swept the midterms, and two weeks after Israel's voters took away Netanyahu's majority, the US-Israel relationship is being renegotiated at both ends — and the man who negotiated the last 38 billion dollar security deal says so plainly. Dan Shapiro, US ambassador to Israel under Barack Obama and later a Pentagon official under Joe Biden, tells Yonit and Jonathan why he has been using the word toxic about Netanyahu since the election, what a minority government leaning on Arab parties would do for Israel's image in America, and whether Trump can really end the 3.8 billion dollars a year of military aid two years early. Plus a bike protest aimed at Jewish-owned restaurants in Philadelphia, and why Shapiro's own family now walks into synagogue through airport-style security.Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0mtLTpilYU4Follow Unholy and learn more about the pod: https://www.unholy-podcast.comJoin our Patreon community to get access to bonus episodes, discounts on merch and more: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon  🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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 elections, a week apart — one a blue tsunami, the other far less decisive. Two days after the Democrats swept the midterms, Yonit and Jonathan ask what the result means for an Israel that voted against Netanyahu's government without quite repudiating him. JD Vance names the US relationship with Israel as one of four reasons his party lost, Trump announces an end to aid on election morning, and Yair Lapid and newly-elected Democratic congressman Brad Lander argue it out on X — so is a Netanyahu-free government now a strategic necessity and would a friendlier face even be enough? At home: Herzog's consultations, the 48-seat minority government spoken of in whispers around Gadi Eisenkot, and the Shin Bet chief's bid to question Arab lawmakers without evidence. Plus a Chutzpah award for a serial winner in a hard hat, and a Mensch nominee whose new job has nothing to do with trains.  00:00:00 Intro: two elections, one week apart00:01:28 The blue tsunami and Israel: a repudiation of Trump, not of Netanyahu00:11:43 What a moderate Democrat means now: Talarico, Vance's four reasons00:13:10 Yair Lapid versus Brad Lander on X00:19:07 Trump as a cornered animal: the Iran question00:21:56 Obama's aid and Trump's cut: the Netanyahu bookends00:24:26 Charisma: Ossoff, Talarico, Shapiro and Eisenkot00:27:41 Israeli headlines: certification, Herzog's consultations, UTJ00:31:51 The 48-seat minority government scenario00:37:58 David Zini, the Shin Bet and the Attorney General; the Abu Shehadeh arrest00:45:27 Chutzpah and Mensch of the Week 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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.

A week after Israel voted, the identity of the next government is still unclear — but one thing is not. Israel's Palestinian citizens turned out in record numbers and Arab-led parties will have 19 seats in the new Knesset. No government of change can form without them. Nagham Zbeedat, who covers Palestinian affairs and the Arab world for Haaretz, refused to vote in Knesset elections for many years but she ended her personal boycott last week, casting a ballot in her hometown of Sakhnin. She tells Yonit and Jonathan what the surge in Arab turnout was really about — and why it is not a vote of confidence in the system. Where do Ra'am and the Joint List part ways? Can either of them meet Gadi Eisenkot's conditions, and what would a war with Iran or Gaza do to a coalition that depended on them? Looking ahead, what do Israel's Jews and Arabs need to understand about each other if there is to be a chance of a better future? 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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 days after Israel voted, Yonit and Jonathan are in the same room in Tel Aviv, working out an election Jonathan calls a win within a loss for Netanyahu and a loss within a win for Gadi Eisenkot — a coalition shrunk from 64 to 53, and still no path to a government without him. Yonit, after her eleventh election night as anchor, on why the exit polls got it wrong and the ten-week clock that starts once the president hands out the mandate. Then the question diaspora callers keep putting to Jonathan: how, three years after 7 October, is Netanyahu still there? The answer runs through Benny Gantz, 11 October 2023 and Neville Chamberlain. Plus the Qatar turnout allegation, the oak in whose shade nothing grows, a Chutzpah from the Michigan Senate race and a Mensch awarded to a few million people at once.  Get a free year of SAPIR: http://sapirjournal.org/unholy 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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.

Israel voted on 27 October — and by Wednesday afternoon, with 85 percent of the ballots counted, Benjamin Netanyahu had lost his majority and nobody could remove him. The bloc against him stands at 67 seats in a Knesset of 120, and still every route to a government looks blocked: unity with Gadi Eisenkot, a minority government resting on the Arab parties, or another election. Yonit, straight off anchoring Channel 12's election night, and Jonathan talk through the three scenarios and the stranger ones underneath them — a Trump-guaranteed rotation, a united-bloc offer Netanyahu would have to refuse — plus the record Arab turnout and what drove it, why Shas and Ben-Gvir shrank while Likud grew, and what a parliamentary majority can do while nobody can form a government 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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.

Join us on Unholy Live on YouTube the moment the polls close: https://youtube.com/live/EUhNvryZQSo?feature=share   After a dizzying final weekend of campaigning, in which Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israelis that if he were removed from office a 'second Holocaust' would follow, the voters themselves are about to have their say. Jonathan talks to New Yorker editor David Remnick - who recently wrote an in-depth profile of Gadi Eisenkot - all about the man trying to topple Netanyahu. What brought Eisenkot to this moment - and what it would mean for Israel and the wider world if he succeeds? 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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.

Reunited in the same studio in Tel Aviv just five days before Israelis head to the polls, Yonit and Jonathan dive into the high-stakes homestretch of an election that feels less like routine politics and more like a referendum on the country’s soul. Jonathan reports from the ground—from the packed, expat-heavy El Al flight from London to a campaign rally with Gadi Eisenkot—while Yonit parses the razor-thin bloc arithmetic, the damaging fallout from the Yonatan  Urich Qatari funding investigation, and the electoral tightrope Benjamin Netanyahu is walking with ultra-Orthodox draft evasion.They also look across the Atlantic to the agonizing choices facing Jewish voters in Michigan’s midterm contest, award our Chutzpah trophy to an American envoy in urgent need of an English dictionary, and find an unexpected, deeply moving Mensch in the southern desert dust.Don't miss Unholy's Livecast on Election night, October 27th: https://unholy-podcast.com/live/Get a free year of SAPIR: http://sapirjournal.org/unholy 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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.

With just a week to go, Israel’s election campaign caught fire at the weekend, thanks to an incendiary intervention by one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s most ardent media supporters. Channel 14’s Yinon Magal re-opened a deep racial divide when he repeatedly referred to Netanyahu’s prime challenger, Gadi Eisenkot - whose family roots are in Morocco - as a “monkey”.What are the origins of the Mizrahi-Ashkenazi divide in Israeli society - and what place does it continue to play in the life and politics of the country? Yonit is joined by journalist and author Matti Friedman for a deep examination of a key Israeli faultline. 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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.

Twelve days before Israel votes, Yonit observes that the national mood is neither Britain in 1997 nor America in 2008 - a nation certain that it’s on the brink of change - but one of pure tension on both sides. In the final stretch, Binyamin Netanyahu is on an interview blitz, making no secret of his plans to maintain his current coalition while insisting Itamar Ben-Gvir will not be defense minister—a denial Jonathan reads as an outright forecast.Meanwhile, Gadi Eisenkot warns voters that his slate must be the largest in the anti-Bibi bloc, Naftali Bennett takes the lead for a joint ticket while his partner Lapid goes conspicuously quiet and Jonathan wonders if Netanyahu can simply peel off defectors after election day. Then, the electoral arithmetic that will decide the night: why the Arab parties sit outside both blocs, and whether a minority government could actually function.Plus: Chutzpah of the Week from an American campus, a strictly kosher if high Mensch award and a reminder that Unholy goes live on election night, 27 October, the moment the exit polls drop. Get a free year of SAPIR: http://sapirjournal.org/unholy 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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 weeks before Israel votes, the polls seem to be telling two different stories — Channel 14 has the Netanyahu bloc at 63 seats, Channel 12 has it at 49. Dahlia Scheindlin, pollster and senior analyst at Haaretz, who has advised nine Israeli election campaigns, tells Yonit and Jonathan the picture is far less wild than it looks. Why do six of eight pollsters agree while two keep drifting? Who is actually still undecided, and does the much-discussed wave of expats flying in to vote amount to anything? Why have October 7 and everything since barely moved an electorate that has been shifting one way for fifteen years? And what is the iron rule that lets a pollster name your vote before you know it yourself — in an election whose result, she argues, now rests in the minds of six men. 🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 📺 FOLLOW UNHOLYYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/X: https://x.com/unholypodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLYApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W 🎙️ THE HOSTSYonit LeviInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/X: https://x.com/LeviYonitLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/Jonathan FreedlandInstagram: 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.