The fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government is overshadowed by an already notorious phone call where Donald Trump reportedly dropped multiple F-bombs on Benjamin Netanyahu for threatening Israeli strikes on Beirut. Yonit and Jonathan dissect the increasing strain in the US-Israel relationship - and a new equation set by Iran that will alarm all Israelis. Meanwhile, two warning signs this week for the state of Israeli democracy, as Netanyahu appoints his personal lawyer as State Comptroller, with members of the Knesset pressured to reveal their secret ballot - and a mob vandalizes the home of a Supreme Court justice in a bid to intimidate the judiciary over demands to exempt the ultra-Orthodox from mandatory military service. Also - an inquiry into antisemitism in UK’s cherished NHS, while Canada’s PM admits the country failed its Jews, prompting a new advisory council with a questionable membership. And finally (and thankfully), it’s a crowded field for our mensch of the week award. 00:00 Introduction and Overview of Current Events 02:47 The Impact of Smartphones on Society 05:38 Ceasefire Agreements and Regional Tensions 09:22 US-Israel Relations and Political Dynamics 13:13 Political Appointments and Democratic Erosion in Israel 18:50 Judicial Intimidation and the Rule of Law 23:02 Global Anti-Semitism and Responses 29:35 Celebrating Women in Film: Helen Mirren and Emma Thompson 35:17 A Culinary Milestone: Mutra's Michelin Star

This week, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with acclaimed military and intelligence analyst Amos Harel to discuss his new book 6:29 -Anatomy of a Failure — a devastating, meticulously reported account of October 7th and the collapse that preceded it. Drawing on internal investigations, intelligence materials, battlefield testimony and conversations with senior officials, Harel reconstructs how Israel failed at every level: intelligence, operations - and strategy. They discuss the “Walls of Jericho” Hamas attack plan that Israeli intelligence possessed years in advance; the SIM card warnings and the signs missed in the final hours before the massacre; the operational chaos that left communities abandoned for hours; and why Harel believes October 7th could likely have been prevented. The conversation also examines Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in the years leading up to the attack: the Qatar cash pipeline to Hamas, the belief that the Palestinian conflict could be indefinitely “managed,” the judicial overhaul crisis, and the refusal — still now — to establish a state commission of inquiry. Plus: why Hezbollah’s hesitation on October 7th may have prevented an even greater catastrophe, whether Israel has actually learned the lessons of that day, and why Harel believes the battle over the public memory of October 7th may define Israel’s coming elections.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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?

Maoz Inon lost his parents on October 7th. They were in their safe room, 200 meters from the Gaza border wall, when Hamas came. Aziz Abu Sarah lost his brother — the person who raised him — after he was tortured in an Israeli prison during the First Intifada. Two days after October 7th, Aziz wrote Maoz a letter. Maoz wrote back. That exchange became a friendship, a journey across the Holy Land, and now a New York Times bestselling book: "The Future Is Peace." This is not a polemic. It is not a policy paper. It is an invitation — to sit with grief that belongs to both sides, to doubt the narratives handed to you, and to imagine that the conflict will end. Because, as Maoz says, it will. The only question is when and how many more lives are lost before it does. Yonit and Jonathan talk with them about Hamas, religious extremism, on what peace would actually look like, on whether Israelis have any reason to trust again.    Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/0nJ3q4kvVPs ⏱ CHAPTERS: [00:00] Intro — who are Aziz and Maoz? [00:47] Maoz: the last phone call with his parents on October 7th [02:57] Aziz: losing a brother who was his parent [04:34] The kind of people Maoz's parents were [08:12] Aziz reaches out — what the letter said [09:47] Why Aziz wanted to learn Hebrew [14:23] Are they the minority? How do you make peace mainstream? [16:36] What would peace actually look like? [20:18] Yonit pushes: what about Hamas, what about religion? [24:44] The travelogue — hospitals, holy sites, and shared grief [26:38] Do Israelis and Palestinians have to give up their narratives? [33:27] What do Aziz and Maoz still disagree on? [38:48] Closing — the book, the journey, the invitation 💛 Become a friend of the pod:Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.lovable.app/📺 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.

The Iran war may be over — or it may not. In the space of a few hours this week, Washington ordered warships into the Strait of Hormuz, paused the operation, threatened to resume bombing at higher intensity, and then declared peace was near. Yonit and Jonathan cut through the chaos — and ask the question the ceasefire deal still hasn't answered: what happened to Iran's nuclear stockpile? Also this week: Bezalel Smotrich calls October 7th "a tactical failure" and says including Arab parties in government would be a thousand times worse — Jonathan calls him what he is. Gadi Eisenkot and former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen join forces. Netanyahu's plea deal murmurs get louder. The UK goes to the polls with antisemitism front and center. And the Chutzpah and Mensch awards both go to the same unlikely figure: Nick Cave, who told a hostile fan to go F himself — and blamed his wife's absence.

Forty days of war with Iran. Four weeks of an uneasy ceasefire. And one verdict that nobody in Washington wants to say out loud: the Islamic Republic came out of this stronger. Dr. Suzanne Maloney, Vice President of the Brookings Institution's foreign policy program and one of America's most trusted voices on Iran, joins Yonit and Jonathan as US warships attempt to escort vessels through a Strait of Hormuz that Iran still effectively controls. They get into whether the ceasefire can hold, why the nuclear threat was never really addressed, who is actually making decisions inside Tehran now that the supreme leader is gone, and what a realistic deal — if one exists — might look like. Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/D_P_lca1OzQ