Israel Defense Forces
154 episodes
#6204: Two Humans, One Table Each: Calling Israel's Election
No models this time — just two seat-by-seat tables, fifty vs. fifty-nine, and a defector hunt two seats short of a majority.
#6091: ישראל בוחרת, חלק ב׳: על מה המפלגות עומדות
רוב המפלגות בישראל לא פרסמו מצע כבר שנים. הנה מה שהן אומרות בפועל שיעשו, והנושאים שבהם הן שותקות.
#6085: Israel Votes, Part 5: Rent and Noise, Side by Side
657,000 noise complaints in 2.5 years, 1 in 7 fined — and only one party platform even mentions noise. What the parties actually wrote on rent and ...
#6084: ישראל בוחרת, חלק א׳: מי באמת רץ
שלושים ושמונה רשימות, שני גושים ואחוז חסימה אחד: המפה המלאה של הבחירות לכנסת ב־27 באוקטובר 2026.
#6066: Israel Votes, Part 2: What the Parties Stand For
Most Israeli parties haven't published a platform in years. Here's what they actually say they'll do — and where they stay silent.
Also available in:עברית
#5953: How Militaries Decide What to Buy
Twelve Apaches, a billion shekels, and a question nobody answered: where do weapons requirements actually come from?
#5921: Israel's Urgent Care Safety Net: What Broke
A Jerusalem family's two terrifying nights expose the layer beneath the ER — and the doctor shortage behind it.
#5902: Four Tribes, One Ballot: Israel's Coalition Maze
Thirty-eight parties, a 3.25% threshold, and four groups that don't agree on what the country is even for.
#5901: Haredi: How a Word Became a Tribe
The Hebrew means "trembling in awe." The English translation means "beyond the pale." How did one word become a whole society?
#5820: Hebraizing the Jewish Name: Ivrut's Rise and Cost
A booklet, five methods, and 17,000 name changes in a single year — how Israel turned Diaspora surnames into Hebrew ones.
#5715: No Phone, No Panic: Safety Without Surveillance
A parent takes a kid out for hours, phone-free. When does check-in become care, and when does it become control?
#5686: What Arab Israelis Actually Say About Identity
Same population, same year, wildly different numbers — why the Arab Israeli identity polling keeps contradicting itself.
#5662: Right of Reply: What the Rulebook Actually Says
The IDF's 10-page rebuttal to NAZA bundles a valid procedural complaint with an invalid one. Here's what journalism codes actually require.
#5659: The Ethics of Anonymous Testimony in Documentary
A new IDF response to a Venice-winning film raises a sharp question: what do documentarians owe when sources stay truly anonymous?
#5646: Who Wakes the Prime Minister?
The nuclear football, the duty clerk, the biscuit in the dry cleaning — how leaders stay reachable 24/7, and what that means for October 7th.
#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.
#5497: Mandelbaum Gate: Inside Jerusalem's Divided Crossing
For 19 years, one narrow seam connected two hostile halves of Jerusalem. Here's how the Mandelbaum Gate actually worked.
#5453: When Politics Ends a Friendship
Ed Sheeran lost friends over Macklemore. A listener lost a friend over being called a monster. Where's the line?
#5444: Carmei Gat: The Buchman of the Negev?
A planned neighborhood on Kiryat Gat's edge is pulling in Anglo olim with prices that undercut Beit Shemesh and Modiin.
#5426: AI Wrote His Yom Kippur Prayer
A man skipped synagogue, opened ChatGPT instead, and got a prayer that knew his life. Is AI-generated prayer real prayer?
#5421: Why Secular Israelis Still Fast on Yom Kippur
A majority of secular Israeli Jews fast on Yom Kippur. What the data say about how faith gets handed down — and how observance becomes a weapon.
#5377: Is the U.S.-Israel Split a Blip or a Realignment?
Gallup's 2026 first-ever Palestinian sympathy lead isn't a flip toward Palestinians — it's a decade-long collapse in support for Israel.
#5349: Why Israel Feels Like a Country at War With Quiet
Balagan, matkot, and tailgating in the Negev: what explains Israel's loud, urgent tempo — and why "security" isn't the answer.
#5315: What It's Like Living Next Door to a Prime Minister
Motorcades, megaphones at 5:30 a.m., and a three-meter wall — what neighbors of heads of state actually endure.