Israel's Iran paradox

Israel spent 30 years depicting the Iranian regime as an existential threat, and now it is trying to eliminate it. But if the regime falls, which enemy will it choose next? Meron Rapoport joins us under Tel Aviv sirens to talk about the war's real goals, what it means for Israel’s relations with the Palestinians, and why “victory” may only set the stage for an even bigger challenge.The full transcript of this episode will be available on our website. Additional reading:Meron Rapoport’s archive at +972Israel’s last war alongside an imperial power backfired. This one could, tooNetanyahu’s pardon request is a lens into Israel’s political psycheFollow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show

For more than half a century, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was framed as temporary, even as realities on the ground told a different story. Now, legal experts say recent government measures have pushed Israel into de facto annexation. In the face of these moves, and in the shadow of the genocide in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has never looked so weak. Longtime Palestinian affairs journalist Dalia Hatuqa unpacks what all of this means and how it is playing out on the ground.A full transcript of this episode will be available on our website. Additional reading:Dalia Hatuqa archive at +972Has Israel crossed the annexation threshold in the West Bank?Follow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show

Across the occupied West Bank, Palestinian communities are being expelled at an alarming pace. Violent settler attacks are increasingly routine—and often ignored by authorities and much of the Israeli media. For the past two decades, Oren Ziv has documented these communities’ struggles to stay on their land when much of the Israeli press would not. In this episode, he shares how the constant threat of expulsion—whether from coordinated settler attacks, state policies, or both—reshapes lives, and explores what acts of dissent against this new status quo can realistically achieve.Additional reading:Oren Ziv’s Archive at +972The calculated erasure of Ras Ein Al-AujaAt settlers’ bidding, Israel arrests prominent Palestinian activistIsraeli army, settlers unite in collective punishment of Al-MughayyirWith West Bank annexation in the air, settlers revel in their impunityFollow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show

As violent organized crime and police violence reshape everyday life in Palestinian communities in Israel, and as another election approaches, MK Aida Touma-Suleiman reflects on a decade inside the Knesset –– and on the moment she decided she could no longer stay. In a conversation about feminist leadership, political exhaustion, and the limits of trying to fight from within  the Israeli system built to exclude Palestinians, Touma-Suleiman  leaves us to ask: where can the struggle move  when institutional politics can’t deliver justice?Additional reading:Israel is ‘restoring governance’ to the Negev — by terrorizing PalestiniansIn Nazareth, holiday festivities mask a ‘deep rot’Follow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show

Over 9,000 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons and military detention centers. While the majority of their names will be unfamiliar to most, the name of one Palestinian prisoner stands out above all others: Marwan Barghouti. Decades behind bars haven’t dimmed his influence—thanks, in part, to his family’s tireless advocacy. His son Arab Barghouti shares how Marwan’s life embodies both the ordinary struggles of countless Palestinians and the extraordinary impact of one man’s unwavering vision for his people.Follow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan Birumi Support the show

This time of year, Palestinian Christians are often invoked in media and political discourse as emblems of faith, coexistence, and hope, while the political conditions shaping their lives — including military occupation, genocide, and forced displacement — are ignored. Palestinian theologian and lecturer John Munayer sheds light on the Palestinian Christian experience, from Israeli efforts to separate them from the Arab and Palestinian national movements, to the role of Christian leadership and institutions in legitimizing their subjugation. Arguing that religion and politics cannot be disentangled, he explains why Palestinian liberation theology offers not only a framework for resistance but a challenge to the colonial, Zionist assumptions embedded in Western Christian thought.Right now, your donation is worth up to 12 times more. As part of our end-of-year campaign, a generous donor is multiplying each new +972 membership by 12 and doubling every one-time donation. If you believe in our fight to end impunity and ensure justice for all between the river and the sea, now is your chance to act.Join the +972 family. Make a donation. Make a difference.Additional reading:Sheltering in churches, Gaza’s Christians face another Christmas under firePalestinian Christians do not tolerate life under occupationFollow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show

Investigative journalist Yuval Abraham takes us inside his reporting on the systems driving Israel’s mass killing in Gaza over the past two years. He discusses the core challenges and ethical dilemmas of uncovering state-backed atrocities, and why the stories revealed so far are just the tip of the iceberg. Abraham highlights the need to hold powerful institutions, like Israel’s military accountable rather than focusing only on individual perpetrators, offering a deeper look at the mechanisms that produce and conceal systemic violence.Additional reading:Yuval Abraham’s archive at +972Follow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Right now, your donation is worth up to 12 times more. As part of our end-of-year campaign, a generous donor is multiplying each new +972 membership by 12 and doubling every one-time donation.If you believe in our fight to end impunity and ensure justice for all between the river and the sea, now is your chance to act.Join the +972 family. Make a donation. Make a difference.Theme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show

Over a month into the ceasefire, Gaza’s future remains in the hands of Western powers — with Palestinians largely excluded. Gazan political analyst Muhammad Shehada provides an in-depth look at the diplomatic and geopolitical strategies at play, the ongoing realities of displacement and deprivation inside the Strip, and what this moment might mean for Palestinians’ political horizons.Additional Reading: Muhammad Shehada’s archive at +972What’s behind Israel’s new plan to divide Gaza in twoFollow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show

In the occupied West Bank today, life looks completely different than it did just two years ago — with unprecedented levels of state-backed settler violence, arbitrary arrests, new road closures, and mounting economic pressure. But resistance, too, is changing. Veteran activist Munther Amira connects this moment to earlier chapters of the Palestinian struggle and reflects on what it means to keep resisting when survival itself has become the fight.Additional Reading: From the Cemetery of the Living: A Plea for the Rights of Palestinian Detainees ‘They intended to kill us’: Masafer Yatta reels from bloody settler assaultsMy father was jailed for believing Palestine must be freeFollow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show

Two years after October 7, Israeli public opinion remains shaped by fear, grief, and a siege mentality. But could the fragile ceasefire mark a turning point — or will Israel slip back into an “October 6 way of thinking,” ignoring the root causes of the violence and paving the way for future wars? Political analyst, public opinion researcher, and A Land For All member Dahlia Scheindlin joins us to discuss how Israeli attitudes toward the war on Gaza have evolved, whether there’s any possibility of a public reckoning, and what it would take to begin a process of genuine political transformation between the river and the sea — from both within Israeli society and the international community. Additional Reading: Dahlia Scheindlin’s archive at +972‘Israelis are frustrated, but do they want to stop the war? Not exactly’Follow +972 Magazine: 972mag.com Instagram, Facebook, and  XSupport +972 Magazine:Become a Member Sign up for our newslettersTheme music by Ghassan BirumiSupport the show