Geopolitics and Security
International affairs, wars, militaries, intelligence, and diplomacy, including Israel's wars and external security.
#5629: Keyloggers, Stingrays, and the Library Laptop Grab
Tor, Signal, full-disk encryption — and a chip on the motherboard that none of them can see.
#5628: What a Nuclear Warhead Actually Looks Like
Real warheads aren't cinematic — they're warm, gold-plated, softball-sized pits inside floor vaults under aircraft shelters.
#5619: Why Does Israel Need Six Submarines?
Israel's newest submarine, the Drakon, just arrived in Haifa. What does a six-boat fleet actually buy a country the size of New Jersey?
#5586: The Ancient World Was More Connected Than You Think
Could an ordinary person travel the Roman world? The evidence says yes — and the reasons we think otherwise are revealing.
#5577: When the UN Goes Viral: Pitchers, Shoes, and 6-Second Clips
A six-second clip of a man drinking from a pitcher resurfaces as if it's new — inside the long history of the UN's most meme-able moments.
#5568: Israel's Pragmatic Center: Housing, Groceries, and the 2026 Vote
Israelis say housing and cost of living decide their vote — but the campaign is about everything else. Can the pragmatic center break the pattern?
#5567: The Sinai Crossing Where a Stamp Draws the Border
A 24-hour pedestrian crossing between Eilat and Taba, where a free stamp, a one-kilometer fee waiver, and four treaty zones shape every trip into S...
#5564: Why Egypt Tops the "Never Going Back" List
Egypt dominates a viral thread of countries travelers swear they'll never revisit. Here's why — and what the defenders say.
#5559: Why Do People Move Countries? Migration Motives
Daniel moved to Israel for ideology, not opportunity. So are ideological migrants the exception — or just badly counted?
#5556: Ranking the World's 5 Worst Bus Rides
Five real long-haul bus routes ranked by misery — breakdowns, borders, and no toilets — with extra weight for arriving somewhere ordinary.
#5549: When Pro-Israel Advocacy Alienates the Persuadable
A pro-Israel insider's critique: cherry-picked examples, refusing to concede any fault, and fighting fire with fire may be losing the people you mo...
#5548: Hasbara: Explanation or Policy Problem?
Israel's Foreign Minister says embassy moves matter as much as the battlefield. A listener in Jerusalem says the problem isn't PR — it's policy.
#5546: How Fast Before an Engine Can Swallow a Person?
A running turbofan at idle already moves hundreds of kilograms of air per second. Here's why the ramp is lethal long before takeoff thrust.
#5530: Jerusalem's Pencil Line: 1948–1967
Two commanders drew a ceasefire line in wax pencil in 1948. It became a city's border for nineteen years.
#5527: Seven Ways to Measure a Country's Isolation
Netanyahu's quick UN trip sparks a bigger question: how do you actually measure a country's isolation? We build seven heuristics.
#5515: Who Owns What in Intelligence?
Armies built spy agencies first — half a century before Mossad. How military and civilian intelligence divide the work, and who enforces the line.
#5510: Six Churches, One Roof, 270 Years of Deadlock
Six churches share Jerusalem's holiest sites — and none can move a chair without the other five agreeing. Here's how that happened.
#5509: The Long Tail of Spy Stations
How far does the CIA's station map actually reach? A 1961 memo to JFK and the agency's own map archive tell two very different stories.
#5508: Life After the Oval Office: Orange Juice and Security
Carter went home to Plains, Bush took up painting, Obama stayed on stage — but all three kept the detail. Can a former president ever just buy oran...
#5498: Who Was a Superpower Before America?
The word "superpower" was invented in 1944. So how do you build a list of them stretching back to Akkad?