Two Nice Jewish Boys

LIVE: Panic on the streets of London, Sacha Baron Cohen speaks out against FB and Louis CK stages his unholy comeback in the Holy Land. Buckle up!

In mid October, the IDF chief of staff, Aviv Cohavi, briefed both Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz on the state of Israel's security. The situation according to Cohavi, is grim. With regional stability at a low and threats of war on multiple fronts, Israel faces serious security challenges. Some pundits argue that Cohavi is simply trying to enrich the IDFs coffers. Others claim that this time it's for real. So, the question still stands: is Israel going to war? And if so, what will it look like? Joining us today is Seth Frantzman. Seth is the Oped Editor and Middle East affairs analyst at The Jerusalem Post. He has covered the war against Islamic State, three Gaza wars, the conflict in Ukraine, the refugee crises in Eastern Europe and also reported from Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Senegal, the UAE, Ukraine and Russia. We're super excited to be joined by Seth Frantzman to discuss the next Israeli war.

In a free democratic state, every person is innocent until proven guilty and is entitled to a fair trial. That seems simple enough. However, sometimes the rule of law doesn’t quite line up so perfectly with our personal sense of judgement. In 1986 a man by the name of John Demjanjuk was extradited from the Cleveland, Ohio to the Israel. Demjanjuk was accused of being Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka - a notorious guard who would torture Jewish prisoners before they entered the gas chambers at the second deadliest Nazi extermination camp. Before Demjanjuk stood trial in Israel, he needed representation. No one in Israel was willing to defend the man that most believed to be one of the cruelest perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Until Yoram Sheftel came along. Today we are joined by Yoram Sheftel to talk about the Demjanjuk case and the new Netflix documentary “The Devil Next Door”.

These are fateful days for the State of Israel. A government is still nowhere in sight, and the chances for third elections seem higher than ever, as Ganz’s opportunity to form a government ends this Wednesday at midnight. In the meantime, Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing severe criminal charges, and Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is due to submit his final decision on Netanyahu’s cases in the upcoming days. This decision, will determine, in many ways, Israel’s destiny. In recent weeks, a group of right-wingers started to demonstrate against the Prosecution and the legal system in general, in demand to drop the charges against the Prime Minister. They’re joined by central media and news personalities who are critiquing both the police and the prosecution for being dishonest and even criminal. One of those demonstrators is Dr. Gadi Taub. Gadi Taub is probably one of the most hated and despised people among Tel Aviv’s intellectual elite. The reason is simple: once, he was one of them. An eloquent left winger, a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with a PhD in American Studies from Rutgers University and all the right opinions. But alas, Dr. Taub woke up one morning and decided to “shift sides”. Now Taub publishes in-depth, highly controversial, right-wing op-eds in Haaretz, lately denouncing the Israeli justice system. We’re thrilled to have Dr. Taub on the show to talk about Netanyahu’s criminal charges and the future of the Israeli Justice System.

(Please note: this text was written by the hosts and does not represent Ya'ara Cohen's opinions) In Israel, every year, 20 women on average get murdered by a family member. It might seem a relatively small number for an American, but in a country of 9 million - it’s a LOT. The majority of these women, are - PC TRIGGER ALERT- from Arab families, but definitely not all of them. Only recently, Israeli society was shaken by a horrendous murder of a mother by her father in front of their baby - and they were, on paper, the perfectly normal “Israeli” Jewish family. In the world, Israel is known as the only democracy in the Middle East. A torch of light amidst an ocean of cultural darkness - a country of gay pride parades, innovation and enlightenment. But when it comes to women, we need to ask ourselves - is Israel a feminist country? To try and answer this, we’re joined by Ya'ara Cohen. Ya'ara is a board member at Politically Corret - "Corret" translates to “She reads”, an organization that tries to shed a feminist perspective on everyday texts which we read in the newspaper and online. We’re happy to have Ya'ara Cohen on our show.

LIVE with Anna Ahronheim of The Jerusalem Post to talk about today's hostilities between Gaza and Israel.

Some of the biggest global companies stem from this region. From Mobileye, Checkpoint and Mellanox to Wiz, Waze and Lemonade, Israel is not only on a global level, but at the top of tech innovation. But it’s not only the big companies, the ones that reach the headlines and sell for billions of dollars that call this company home. There is an ecosystem of thousands of innovative companies like Flytrex which does drone delivery, and who’s CEO, Yariv Bash we interviewed back in Episode 92. Or Zeekit which is disrupting the fashion industry by allowing you to virtually try on clothes online before buying them. Of course there’s also the dark side of the Israeli startup scene, which today can sum up in two words: we work. We’ll also get to that. To talk about all this, we’re joined today by a really exciting guest. Born in New York City, living now in Gush Etzion, and consulting for some of Israel’s fastest growing startups, Hillel Fuld is one of the most Influential tech vloggers in Israel and even in the world. Straight from the Hilzfuld Tech Vlog, we are thrilled to be joined today by Hillel Fuld.

LIVE: The Two Nice Jewish Boys Podcast with the monthly recap - talking about scandals, elections and the PATRIARCHY!

The last elections that were held in Israel a month ago, brought the country to yet another political standstill. With no clear winner or loser, the country could very well be approaching its third elections in a single year. And the worst part? Those elections might just lead us right back to square one. How could it be that the only Jewish state, the only democracy in the Middle East, is dealing with such a deep divide? The answer, as always, is in the numbers. Israel’s inner demographics are extremely complicated, with dozens of streams and sub-streams, beliefs, ideologies and various political views. Mix all these ingredients together, put it over medium heat for a couple of years, and you’ll get a complete chaos of a dish. That’s the Israeli story. To understand those complexities, one must dive into the numbers and ask some hard and basic questions: how many Jews in Israel fast on Yom Kippur? How many wave the Israeli flag on independence day? How many people think that serving in the IDF is essential, and how many think Israel should have sovereignty from the river to the sea? Those questions, and the statistics behind them, might help us put the pieces together, in the puzzle of Israeli society. Which leads us to Shmuel Rosner. Alongside Prof. Kamil Fuchs (the Israeli Nate Silver), Shmuel Rosner wrote an extremely important book “#Israelijudaism”, which is now out in English. The book is based on a broad-scale, thorough series of polls conducted by the author, their interpretation and the conclusions that Shmuel Rosner deducts from them. Shmuel Rosner is an Israeli writer, researcher editor based in Tel Aviv. He is a senior fellow at The Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) in Jerusalem. Rosner is a contributing opinion writer for the International New York Times; he is senior political editor for at the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, he’s the host of the great podcast Rosner’s Domain and we’re thrilled to have him on our show today, for the second time? (last time between ep 114 and ep 115).

We’ve talked about the Syrian Civil War a lot on the podcast, but today it seems even more relevant than ever. When civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, the United States was very wary of getting itself embroiled in another conflict in the Middle East. With Iraq and Afghanistan and trying to solve the longest standing conflict in the Middle East, the Israeli - Palestinian conflict, the US had enough on their plates. But when you’re the most powerful nation on Earth, it’s hard to stay neutral. Recently, President Trump announced that he would be leaving Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish incursion, and leaving the Kurds in Syria to fend for themselves. This caused a bit of a stir to say the least. But what was the extent of America’s involvement in Syria? How big of a step was this actually? And what does this mean for the future of a conflict that has been raging on for almost a decade? Today, we’re joined by Jenia Frumin. Jenia is an Masters student of Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and formerly a fellow at the Shaharit Institute a thinktank that seeks to build bridges between Israel’s various communities. Jenia is also a senior guide at the L.A. Mayer Museum of Islamic Art and an occasional speaker on subjects related to Middle Eastern history and modern day Russia. We’re excited to be hosting Jenia to talk about the recent events in Syria’s civil war.