Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been enjoying a "dramatic but quite consistent recovery" in the polls in past months, after the failures of October 7 sent his popularity plummeting to unprecedented lows, according to public opinion expert and Haaretz columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin. On this week's Haaretz Podcast, Scheindlin analyzes what may be Netanyahu's slow but steady political comeback despite the fact that the war has continued while a deal to return the country's remaining hostages still has not actualized. She says recent escalations with Iran, particularly the daring assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which Israel has not claimed responsibility for, have restored some of the public's faith in his leadership. Also on the podcast, Haaretz cyber and disinformation reporter Omer Benjakob reviews the "dangerous" breaches of cybersecurity within the Israeli military and how the same Iranian military units devoted to hacking in order to harm Israel are now setting their sights on the U.S. presidential elections. With an "endless stream" of Iranian hacks of sensitive information from its top-secret bases and tracking of soldiers through their smartwatches, the country's most dangerous enemy is collecting and publishing dossiers he describes as a "very dangerous cyber nightmare" that should be feared and fought against as vigorously as missiles, rockets and drones. It is already clear that during the U.S. election campaign, Benjakob says, Iran is doing its best to "foment tensions" around what has already proved to be a dividing issue and the Israel-Hamas conflict "is being amplified at a level that is unprecedented."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Renewed US efforts to reach a hostage deal represent "a last ditch attempt" by the Biden White House for a diplomatic win that could stave off a major Middle East conflagration ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Amos Harel, Haaretz senior military and security analyst said on the Haaretz Podcast, ahead of American-led negotiations set to take place at a summit in Doha, Qatar. The efforts are taking place as Israel faces a "dangerous" and "desperate" situation as it remains prepared for a serious attack, Harel assessed and "the efforts made by the Americans right now show us how seriously they've been taking this threat of regional escalation." Speaking to Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Harel pointed to mixed signals from the Israeli side as to whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is, on any level, interested in making a deal that would return the remaining living hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. Also on the podcast, Haaretz sportswriter Ido Rakovsky discusses the more heartening and cheerful development of the past weeks - the unprecedented successes of Israel's Olympic athletes in the Paris summer games and the "roller coaster of emotions" as they competed in wartime under tight security. "It's a historic moment," declared Rakovsky, noting that Israel has only won 13 Olympic medals in the first 78 years of its existence "and suddenly, in Paris, we finish with seven medals," after even optimistic assessments predicted winning four or five.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the course of two days last week, two major assassinations shook the Middle East. The first was of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, for which the Israeli military took credit, in Beirut. The second was a much more daring operation – the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, right under the nose of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran and other sources have blamed Israel for the strike, and are vowing retaliation – and Israel is gearing up for an attack. For the Haaretz Podcast, correspondent Linda Dayan spoke to Dr. Raz Zimmt, a senior researcher and expert on Iran from the Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University about this threat. After April's Iranian attack on Israel, Zimmt explained, "Iran has come up with this so-called 'new equation,' according to which every Israeli attack on Iranian interests – personalities or facilities, either inside Iran or outside Iran – would be considered a major blow, which deserves a direct attack by Iran." Compared to previous incidents, "Iran and Hezbollah are more willing today to take the risk of escalation," Zimmt said, "even if it means dragging themselves into a full-scale confrontation."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was a scene of "complete chaos" in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights following the devastating Hezbollah strike that killed 12 Druze children playing soccer on Saturday, Haaretz correspondent Sheren Falah Saab, who was at the scene just an hour after the attack, recounted emotionally on Haaretz Podcast. "There were ambulances everywhere and hundreds of people surrounding the wounded children and the bodies of the children," said Falah Saab, who is a member of the Druze community, and has spent the days since the tragedy in the hospital at the bedside of her own relatives wounded in most deadly attack on civilians in Israeli territory since October 7. Falah Saab recalled that "one of most painful sights was the blood-stained bicycles of the children" who were playing on the soccer field and who had no time to run for safety when the siren sounded. The disaster struck a community already hit hard by the Gaza war, she noted. Ten Druze soldiers have been killed in fighting since the start of the war in Gaza. There has also been damage to agriculture and property. But the greatest economic blow is the near-cessation of tourism by both Israelis and foreign visitors in northern Israel, on which much of the Druze population relies to make a living. In the midst of calls for massive retaliation by Israeli leaders, including some Druze, Falah Saab maintained that a majority of Druze "say they don't want war, and they don't want this tragedy to cause more tragedy and more killing of children." Also on the podcast, Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America discusses the excitement among Jewish Democrats about the candidacy of Kamala Harris for president, following President Joe Biden's decision to bow out of the race. Soifer said that there will "continue to be no daylight" between the policies of Harris and Biden regarding Israel and the Gaza war. "She came into this White House with a deep commitment to Israel and in this White House she has been in lockstep with the president on every key issue related to Israel in the lead up to – and now in the aftermath of – the horrific attacks of October 7," Soifer said, dismissing the "vitriol, hate and lies" of GOP nominee Donald Trump who recently charged Democrats with "hating Israel." Given that three-quarters of US Jews vote for the Democrats, she said, Trump is essentially saying that nearly all of them "are uninformed and disloyal, that we hate Israel, that we hate our religion." His charge that "Kamala Harris doesn't stand with Israel is patently false and yet another iteration of his toxic vitriol, and it's targeting Jewish voters. We should call it out for what it is. It is hate, and we reject it." According to Soifer, the Jewish vote will be unusually significant in this election, given the presence of Jewish population in key battleground states, in which Harris and GOP nominee Donald Trump are deadlocked. "This election is going to be close, just like the last one was, and it will be decided by probably about 6 percent of voters in six states: Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. We're not talking about a lot of voters who are going to decide the outcome of this election, which is why the Jewish vote is so important."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a time of goodbyes: As Joe Biden says goodbye to the U.S. presidency, Netanyahu said goodbye to Israel while the Gaza war is raging, while hostages are both suffering and dying, so that he could speak to the U.S. Congress and hold a few high-level meetings. It may not have been ideal timing, but Netanyahu got what he wanted: too many standing ovations to count. Did Israelis get anything out of the speech? Did Netanyahu lay out a vision for the future or a path to get there? One (or two) might even ask: What was Netanyahu even thinking? In a final revival-farewell, Election Overdose podcast hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin do their utmost to answer it in a special episode of the Haaretz Podcast. Come for the banter, stay for the breakdown. And there's one more farewell at the end of it all.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Joe Biden's stunning decision to step aside and forgo a second term, throwing his support behind the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris is unlikely to dramatically change U.S. policy towards Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, according to former diplomat and senior Haaretz columnist Alon Pinkas, who reacted to the bombshell news from Washington on the Haaretz Podcast this week. Biden is planning to remain president until his successor takes office in January 2025, so presumably till then, says Pinkas, all policy regarding Israel and the war - in Gaza and beyond - will be coordinated "vis a vis Joe Biden, not Kamala Harris. In fact, Harris is probably not going to deal with foreign policy because she will be preoccupied and very hectically busy running for president in Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and other places. And so she's not going to want to deal with foreign policy, certainly not thorny issues like the Middle East." To U.S. supporters of Israel - and Israelis - whose concerns about Harris might lead them to consider backing Republican nominee Donald Trump, Pinkas warns against what he views as "plain idiocy." Pinkas assesses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Washington this week as "a Seinfeld visit about nothing that wasn't meant to be about anything except a vanity tour that Mr. Netanyahu thought he would sell to his electoral base." With war raging in Israel and hostages in Gaza, Pinkas calls the decision to travel to Washington "recklessness of the highest order." Also on the podcast, family members of hostages, who traveled to Washington, explain why they felt the need to make their voices heard during Netanyahu's visit, and pressure U.S. leaders to push Netanyahu in the direction of a deal that would end the war and free their loved ones from Hamas captivity. "We're here send a message that (Netanyahu) cannot just go to America and get a standing ovation in Congress as if he won this war and freed the hostages," says Zahiro Shachar Mor, the nephew of 79-year-old hostage Avraham Mundar. "We are here to show the world that… the voice of Netanyahu is not the voice of Israel."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If indeed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was killed when IDF forces targeted him on Saturday, "it would be a very important achievement for Israel but it's not the end of the world for Hamas or the end of the war" according to Haaretz senior security analyst Amos Harel, speaking to host Allison Kaplan Sommer on this week's Haaretz Podcast about the events that rocked the past weekend - the targeting of Deif and the attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump. Although many Israeli security officials believe Deif was eliminated in the air assault in Gaza's Khan Yunis, Harel was cautious in his assessment, given that the head of Hamas's military wing has escaped multiple attempts on his life in the past. As one of the "two major planners involved every inch of the way" when it came to the horrific massacres of October 7, Harel said it was "very important from an Israeli perspective to settle the score." Also on the podcast, Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels discusses the effects of the Trump assassination attempt on the Republican National Convention, which is set to showcase campus antisemitism as one of it's "top tier issues." Samuels, speaking from Milwaukee where he is covering the convention says the reason, is "because it hits at so many issues that Republicans in America these days really care about - it touches on immigration, foreign policy, and national security. So it makes sense that Republicans will really try to seize upon this as a key theme over the next few days" and point to it as a negative development that happened on Joe Biden's watch.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges to keep up the fighting in Gaza, thousands of Israelis joined together at a conference on Monday to deliver a message to his government and the world: It's time to reach a deal, to stop the war, to make peace. One of the many groups behind the peace conference was Women Wage Peace, whose co-founder Yael Admi told Haaretz reporter and special host of Haaretz Podcast Linda Dayan that within the peace camp, "We have to unite our voices, and that's what we did." Discussing how the event came about, how to keep the momentum and the role of women in ending the conflict, Admi said, "We have one common target: To bring back the hostages, to make this terrible war end and to begin a process of diplomatic agreements to give a horizon of solutions for these awful days." Dayan also interviewed activists Ibrahim Abu Ahmad and Josh Drill, bereaved mother Elana Kaminka and Standing Together co-director Alon-Lee Green, who said "After nine months of war... It's not enough to point out what we hate," adding, "we must put forward a vision of which kind of reality we are demanding." As Israelis dream of a better future, in Europe, France is gearing up for a far-right government after the National Rally party emerged victorious in the first round of voting on Sunday. Haaretz correspondent and France 24 journalist Shirli Sitbon joined the podcast to explain where France and its Jewish citizens, who have become a political football, go from here. The Jewish community "is very divided" on the results, she said. "At the same time, they feel that [it's] a strong party that will be tough on anyone who attacks Jews – that's what the National Rally promises, to defend Jews – but at the same time, a lot of Jews know very well what this party is made of, its history, its program, and they see it as extremely dangerous." Still, some French Jews are willing to live with antisemitism in parliament "if it means, they believe, more security on a daily basis," she said. Until now, she added, French Jews have never had official contact with the far right beyond condemning them. But suddenly, with a high likelihood of a far-right total majority, "some Jewish officials are already officially starting to talk to the National Rally, because they want to know what's going to happen, to see what's next." But, "with Jews in a situation we've never known before," she said, "we don't really know what's going to happen tomorrow when they're in power."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The key to avoiding full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah is ending the conflict in southern Israel with Hamas, asserts Yoram Schweitzer, an expert on the Palestinian and Lebanese terror groups, on the Haaretz Podcast. Schweitzer tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer that it is in Israel's power to "extricate itself" from what is already an ongoing two-front war. He blames the "illusion of a total victory" promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza for dragging on the war for months, what he calls a "misguided policy" that has also led to the war of attrition between Lebanon and Israel. "I think it's in our hands to determine the future in the north" when it comes to preventing a slide into a larger war, Schweitzer says. "I think Israel has a great and significant role to play in calming down the situation." A former strategist in negotiating for Israeli soldiers missing in action, Schweitzer believes that a deal must be made with Hamas exchanging hostages for Palestinian prisoners and ending the war. Afterward, Israel should work to "redesign our preparedness and our military readiness both in the south and in the north and prepare for a potential future war with Hezbollah, if needed" – unless a comprehensive regional political settlement can be reached. Schweitzer says he believes internal political pressure in Lebanon and the potential devastation of a full-scale conflict means that Hezbollah is "under pressure" to accept a cease-fire that would avoid a conflagration in which Iran would be sure to join, thus sparking regional war. While he believes Hezbollah and Iran are not interested in the all-out war that has panicked Israelis into buying generators and stocking up on bottled water, "it's in their interest to stick to their policy and to the war of attrition. I think that we need to understand that Israel is the one who determines the scale and the height of the flames of the war." Acknowledging that Hezbollah's Iran-backed forces initiated the current conflict and is "not an innocent bystander," he notes that "Hezbollah is mostly reactive to Israeli maneuvers and attacks" and so Israel determines "where the trend in Lebanon is going." Netanyahu's seemingly concerted efforts to alienate the Biden White House weakens Israel's position vis-a-vis both Hamas and Hezbollah, Schweitzer says, calling it a "very dangerous" and "stupid, foolish and irresponsible" policy. "It is definitely a strategic mistake by our prime minister to attack what may be one of the most friendly administrations that Israel has enjoyed throughout the years. I don't want to use foul language, but it's definitely an unrealistic and irresponsible policy to attack Israel's most significant ally."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Israelis should expect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "poison machine" to be working overtime with the coalition government attacking its own military leaders on a daily basis, says Haaretz senior defense analyst Amos Harel on the Haaretz Podcast. After a brief "honeymoon" period last week, following the IDF's daring rescue of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza, he said, "The hunt is on again. We'll see Netanyahu attacking them almost on a daily basis on the one hand, and also, what we call the poison machine run by his son and his supporters. We'll see more and more accusations pointed towards Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Ronen Bar, the head of the [Shin Bet security service]." The goal of these attacks, Harel says, is to distract the Israeli public from Netanyahu's "dirty political trickery" and "the terrible, terrible price of the ongoing war." "Netanyahu's interests are no longer in line with Israel's strategic interest," Harel asserts. What about the "Decisive victory" the prime minister keeps talking about? "It's absolute nonsense," He said, "and Netanyahu knows that better than anyone else." Also on the podcast, French journalist Shirli Sitbon, a long time Haaretz contributor, reports on how French Jews, along with the rest of the country, were "shocked" by the snap elections declared by President Emmanuel Macron. She said they are themselves caught between political blocs on the left and the right, and with the center weakened, now embrace extremist parties. On the far left, she said, the bloc includes MPs "saying Israel is solely responsible" for the war in Gaza, who view Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement, support a full boycott and sanctioning of the country as well as arresting Israeli soldiers traveling in Europe and protesters carrying signs portraying French Jewish politicians as pigs. The alternative is a right-wing coalition led by Marine Le Pen's extreme xenophobic National Rally. The polarization, she said, leaves many Jews frightened and confused, with indications that more than half might consider leaving the country if the far left or the far right win a decisive victory and the country "changes on a fundamental level."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.