The Fathom Podcast22 Apr 2025

28: Gilead Sher - Those Who Tried: Conversations with the Peace Processors (6)

Attorney Gilead Sher is a former Israeli senior peace negotiator and Chief of Staff to PM Ehud Barak. Formerly a peace negotiator under PM Rabin, he is a Rice University’s Baker Institute fellow and a former senior fellow at Tel Aviv's Institute for National Studies INSS. In 2023, Sher co-founded the Central Resistance Headquarters for the pro-democracy struggle. He has authored three books, co-edited two, contributed numerous chapters in edited volumes and published dozens of articles in Israeli and international media.

In this conversation, Sher recounts the reasons for the failure of the negotiations he was involved in during the Barak era. He argues that personalities and tactical issues were secondary - although he believes Arafat was unwilling to seriously negotiate and make the requisite compromises. Sher explains that too little time was spent trying to resolve all the myriad issues: 'not enough time and not enough continuous effort was put into the purpose of ending the conflict.' He also critiques the 'package approach' that meant nothing was agreed until everything was agreed, and suggests replacing it with a gradual formula whereby what is agreed should be immediately implemented, which Sher believes would create positive traction on the ground, allowing people to realise that something is changing.

In the later part of the conversation, Sher details his current vision for creating a better future for Israelis and Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October.

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Avsnitt(38)

Matti Friedman on his book 'Out of the Sky' and Gazology

In front of a live audience in Tel Aviv, Fathom Editor Calev Ben-Dor talks to Matti Friedman about his new book, Out of the Sky. They discuss Hannah Senesh and the other parachutists who returned to N...

28 Juli 57min

38: Howard Jacobson on literature, antiSemitism and anti-Zionism

Howard Jacobson is a British Jewish novelist and journalist who has written more than twenty books, including seventeen novels, and won the Booker Prize for fiction. This interview focuses on three of...

6 Juli 1h 12min

37: Elliot Abrams on Epic Fury / Rising Lion against Iran

In early June 2026, Fathom editors Calev Ben-Dor and Andrew Apostolou spoke to Elliot Abrams. Abrams is Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and has previously...

7 Juni 32min

36: Hanin Ghaddar on Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah

On April 23 2026, Fathom editors spoke to Lebanon expert Hanin Ghaddar, the Friedman Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute. As Israeli and Lebanese Ambassadors renewed talks under the auspices of ...

27 Apr 28min

35: Merav Roth on grief and trauma in Israel

In late March, Fathom spoke to Merav Roth (née Lapid) about her work treating trauma in Israel. She discusses the different circles of grief and reflects on her work with survivors from October 7 and ...

14 Apr 49min

35: Merav Roth discusses grief in Israel

14 Apr 49min

34: Alireza Nader - The Uprising in Iran

With thousands reportedly killed by the regime, Fathom spoke to Iran expert Alireza Nader about the uprising in the country. He discussed what he terms the revolutionary movement in Iran, opposition p...

20 Jan 36min