What Matters Now to Israel Story’s Mishy Harman: ‘A person is a person is a person’

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan, speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Israel’s national anthem, "Hativkah," was loudly jeered before its soccer team kicked off play at the Paris Olympics against Mali on Wednesday night. To the relief of all, the game passed without major security incidents as the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Since the 1972 Munich Games, Team Israel has been closely protected by the Israeli Security Agency. However, as rhetoric and activism against Israel heats up during the ongoing war with Hamas, it is the only national team with an extra round-the-clock security detail provided by the host country France. As Israel is increasingly battered on the global stage and called a "pariah state," could protests turn violent? Rettig Gur discusses how to maintain a true north concerning the Gaza war and indifference to world opinion, while still holding vast empathy for the suffering in the Strip. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

25 Juli 202434min

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. Will Israel survive until 100? And if so, which Israel will remain: A democratic Jewish state or a Jewish state, with a side of democracy? These are questions posed by Prof. Eugene Kandel, who served as the Head of the National Economic Council and Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel from 2009-2015, and is today the co-founder with Ron Tzur of Israel’s Strategic Futures Institute (ISFI). In our in-depth discussion, Kandel breaks down Israel’s current societal problems and how they could affect our children. Finally, we hear an out-of-the-box idea to change that divisive trajectory. So this week, we ask Prof. Eugene Kandel, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Prof. Eugene Kandel, today the founder and the Chairman of the independent think tank RISE Israel Institute. (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18 Juli 202441min

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, The Times of Israel deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Since Wednesday afternoon, 100s if not 1,000s of Israelis are marching in support of the hostages in Gaza and their families from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They’re meant to finish their march at the end of Shabbat, Saturday night, with a massive protest in Jerusalem.  We look at when protests in Israel have achieved their goals in the past 50 years and how these outcomes shifted Israeli society. And we examine how the current protests staged by families of hostages held in Gaza may have shaped the war.  So this week, we ask Rettig Gur, What Matters Now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Families and friends of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza call for their return as they begin a four-day march from Tel Aviv to the Prime Minister's house in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11 Juli 202432min

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, The Times of Israel deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with Rachel Gur, the deputy CEO of the grassroots Lobby 99. Today, as part of the "what is good for Europe is good for Israel" import reform, the Knesset ministerial committee for tackling the high cost of living unanimously approved that European standards will apply automatically and will override the need for domestic regulatory standards approval. This comes after a recent report that food and beverage prices in Israel are 52 percent higher than the average among developed countries, second only to South Korea, according to comparative consumer price data released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in June and reported by Channel 12. Prices for bread and grains in Israel were found to be among the highest in OECD countries, at 49% above the average, with only Swiss prices coming in higher. Similarly, Israeli prices for dairy and eggs were the second most expensive among the 38 OECD countries, at 64% more expensive than the average, second to South Korea. And while some of these costs are linked to the ongoing war against Hamas, most are not and are rather linked to a dearth of competition in Israel's "free market" economy. Currently serving as the deputy CEO of Lobby 99 -- "the people's lobby" -- Gur moved to Israel from the United States at age 17 and served in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. After demobbing, she earned an L.L.B. and B.A. in political science from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and an L.L.M. in Legal Theory from New York University Law School. (She also married The Times of Israel’s senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur and had four children.) So this week, as there is some optimism that the cost of living just might will be lowered for the little guy, we ask Rachel Gur, What Matters Now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Deputy CEO of Lobby 99, lawyer Rachel Gur. (Inbal Marmari)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

4 Juli 202442min

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, The Times of Israel deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.  Ultra-Orthodox men of military age have been able to avoid being conscripted to the IDF for decades by enrolling in yeshivas for Torah study and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption. This week, a historic High Court ruling — which found that there is no legal basis for excluding Haredi men from the military draft -- brought the need for a true Haredi draft law into focus.  So when Likud MK and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein delayed a vote on a Defense Ministry-backed “draft Security Service Law” due to what he said was a failure to reach a “broad consensus” on the matter, political pundits paid attention. Likewise, polls indicated this week that a "fantasy" political party of former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman, New Hope head Gideon Sa’ar and former Mossad director Yossi Cohen would be the largest faction in the Knesset if elections were held today, winning 25 seats. So this week, as more murmurings of discontent are heard by Likud MK -- and their voting block -- we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, What Matters Now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  Illustrative image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to his supporters after the first exit poll results for the Israeli parliamentary elections at his Likud party's headquarters in Jerusalem, March. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27 Juni 202430min

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with Holocaust historian Prof. Jan Grabowski, the author of "The Hunt for the Jews." We discuss how in recent decades the lexicon associated with the Holocaust has been usurped and recycled for any number of political purposes. Most recently, the terminology is showcased during Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and accusations against the Jewish state of genocide have led international news. We ask Grabowski, who is currently conducting research in Israel, about the use of terms such as "genocide" and "Nazi" during a period that the University of Ottawa professor calls "a-historic." He speaks about the challenges of educating at western universities today -- especially as some students are calling for their Jewish peers and faculty to “go back to Europe.” So this week, we ask Prof. Jan Grabowski, What Matters Now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Prof. Jan Grabowski (Katarzyna Markusz)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 Juni 202434min

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. On Tuesday, the United Nations published an annual report on children in armed conflict, which for the first time added the Israeli military, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to its list of worst offenders. The decision to add the IDF to what has become known as “the list of shame” was due to what the report said was its killing and maiming of children and attacking schools and hospitals. Israel asserts that it operates according to international law, taking steps to avoid civilian casualties. And on Wednesday, a UN inquiry alleged both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, saying Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses, and that they included acts of “extermination.” This week, we discuss the use of international bodies to delegitimize Israel and how international law -- developed in part by Jews -- no longer protects the little guys. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, What Matters Now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Israel's legal team waits to hear the arguments of South Africa's legal team as part of South Africa case against Israel over Rafah offensive at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, on May 16, 2024. (Nick Gammon / AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

13 Juni 202435min

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with archaeologist Prof. Jodi Magness. This Wednesday, Israel marked Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem following the 1967 Six-Day War. But the capital has a rich and fascinating history of rulership changes since its foundation in circa 1000 BCE. Magness just published her latest book, "Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades," through Oxford University Press. She stopped by The Times of Israel's Jerusalem offices to speak about the ancient eternal city's rulerships and populations throughout the eras. “Jerusalem Through the Ages” is a 700-page weighty tome that delves into the city’s history through archaeological evidence and also texts, including the Bible and extra-biblical material such as the Egyptian Amarna Letters. Magness is Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of 11 books, including "Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth," "Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus," and "The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls." From 2011 until 2023, Magness directed excavations at Huqoq in Israel’s Galilee and uncovered its breathtaking mosaics. So this Jerusalem Day, we take a quick break from our current war and ask archaeologist Prof. Jodi Magness, what mattered then? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Prof. Jodi Magness in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on April 11, 2022. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/The Times of Israel)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

6 Juni 202446min