In a special podcast in honor of Israel’s annual Book Week celebration, Haaretz Weekly is spotlighting two female Israeli journalists turned authors: Dina Kraft, co-author of Hannah Pick-Goslar’s memoir “My Friend Anne Frank”; and Ruth Marks Eglash, a journalist who reported from Israel for the Washington Post for eight years before writing her debut novel, “Parallel Lines.” The world knows Anne Frank as a spirited teenager through her diary recounting her years in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam. But her childhood friend Hannah Pick-Goslar knew her entire story from its hopeful beginning to its tragic end. “My Friend Anne Frank” – currently a New York Times best-seller – was written by Pick-Goslar and Kraft. In an interview with Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Kraft recounts her experience interviewing the 93-year-old Holocaust survivor during the last six months of her life. Pick-Goslar died in 2022, before the book was completed. Kraft shares how Anne and Hannah met as young children in Amsterdam, after their Jewish families fled Hitler’s Germany, and were inseparable friends as they grew into teenagers. Until one day, following the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, when Hannah went to see her friend and was “completely shocked to see breakfast dishes still in the sink and beds left unmade, which was never the case in a very orderly Frank household.” Years later, as Kraft describes, the two friends had a heartbreaking reunion at the fence separating them in Bergen-Belsen. Pick-Goslar remembered finding her once-vivacious friend “freezing, starving, with just a filthy blanket to keep her warm.” *** Also on the podcast, Ruth Marks Eglash tells the story behind her novel “Parallel Lines,” which follows modern-day Jerusalem life and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the eyes of three young women: one Jewish secular Israeli, one ultra-Orthodox Jew and one East Jerusalem Palestinian, who live side-by-side but in entirely different worlds. Her book – inspired by having to make sense of the roller-coaster of conflict and violence in Israel’s capital to her own teenage daughter while working as deputy bureau chief for The Washington Post – focuses on “how this conflict that we write about as journalists and that we read about as adults is impacting young people.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Trump indictment rocking the United States contains numerous references to foreign countries and military battle plans that many believe relate directly to Iran and Israel – and may have even originated in Israeli intelligence sources.  Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Amir Tibon joins Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the indictment as well as the similarities between Trump’s latest legal headaches and those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was elected to Israel’s highest office while on trial for corruption. “If you’re an American watching anxiously and wondering what it’s like to have a clash between a former president running for [office] again and the legal authorities, I don’t think there’s a lot of good news we can bring you from Israel,” Tibon said. If the documents squirreled away in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom were indeed Israel-related, “it wouldn’t be the first time that Trump revealed secret information related to Israeli activities,” he added, recalling the 2017 incident in which the-then president reportedly gave Mossad intelligence to the Russians.  If they were, he predicts that “it won’t be good for Israel to be part of the legal and political circus that will happen around this indictment. Tibon also gives an update on the U.S.-Iran negotiations to revive a nuclear deal over Israeli objections – and the continuing signs that full diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia may come sooner than we think.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An unprecedented number of Israeli ministers and governing coalition lawmakers flew to New York City last week to participate in the annual Celebrate Israel Parade and the conferences and meetings surrounding it. Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels joins Allison Kaplan Sommer with all the highlights of what happened next – from the historic “inflection point” of progressive American Jews and Israelis joining forces to bring pro-democracy and anti-judicial overhaul voices to the parade, to MK Simcha Rothman grabbing a megaphone from a protester following him on the street, to Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli giving the middle finger to the crowd.  “It all showcased just how much of a fault line Israel has become, particularly under this government, in the conversation here,” Samuels said, speaking from New York. “And the optics of Israelis protesting the Israeli government at the Israel Day Parade? That’s the worst PR you can get.”  Also on the podcast, a look at the Israeli under-20 soccer team that shocked and delighted the nation in a come-from-behind victory against powerhouse Brazil in the quarterfinals of the FIFA world championship last Sunday. Haaretz sportswriter Ido Rakovsky joins the podcast to discuss the unique qualities of a dream team made up of both Arabs and Jews, what their success means to Israeli soccer and what their coach has in common with Ted Lasso.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

June 1 marks the beginning of Pride Month around the world, and in Israel, it is being launched with the annual Jerusalem March of Pride and Tolerance, the most tense of the month’s events. Alona Nir Keren, a lesbian Reform rabbi who offers its opening blessing this year, has been part of the parade since it began in 2002. In this episode of Haaretz Weekly, she shares her memories of the early years, when the men who are today the country’s national security and finance ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, waited for the revelers with donkeys on the parade route – “to send the message that homosexuality was the equivalent of sex with animals.” “These people are mean and they are vicious,” she says in conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer. “They’re using fascist metaphors and ideas, and spreading hate. And this person [Ben-Gvir] is supposed to be in charge of my safety while I’m marching in this parade?” Despite the challenges, Nir Keren says she is determined to raise children who can “celebrate their Judaism but also the fact that they have two moms and not be ashamed of it.” Haaretz correspondent Linda Dayan also joins the podcast to describe the protests surrounding an event honoring U.S. author Abigail Shrier, who has written a book warning that a predatory transgender movement “is coming for” young girls. Dayan then shares her experiences at similar events where North American social conservatives Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson addressed Israeli audiences, and her observation that “suddenly very American, very British and very Western ideas about gender identity are making their way here” – sparking “a kind of discussion different from those I had ever heard before” in Israel.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the protest movement against the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul moved into its 20th week, there has been a clear shift in its focus. From battles over the billions of shekels in government budget expenditures on ultra-Orthodox schools that don’t offer basic education, to turf wars over a yeshiva in downtown Tel Aviv and an indoor playground open on Shabbat, to a firestorm around a television talk show host calling ultra-Orthodox Israelis “bloodsuckers.” These days, the public discourse is all about the secular-Orthodox divide. Uri Keidar, CEO of Israel Hofsheet ("Be Free Israel") and Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz join host Allison Kaplan Sommer on Haaretz Weekly to discuss the growing rift, how it relates to the wider struggle against the judicial coup, and the increasing frustration in the secular public. "I think we are starting to see the majority wake up," says Keidar, who believes that this majority is "over and done with" an ultra-Orthodox political agenda which "are not up to speed with the fact that we live in the 21st century." "A lot of angry, secular people are saying: enough is enough. We're sick and tired of sending our kids to the army, while ultra-Orthodox kids don't have to go, we're sick and tired of paying more and more taxes for things that we not only don't believe in, but that we are vehemently opposed to. And this is it. We're not going to put up with it anymore," observes Maltz. "A year ago, if somebody secular in Israel spoke out against the ultra-Orthodox sector, they would have been called anti-Semitic or a self-hating Jew - and that would have shut them up. Today, it's not shutting them up."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When journalist Barak Ravid’s book "Trump's Peace: the Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East" was published in Hebrew in 2021, two words in his text made international headlines. Bitter about the Israeli Prime Minister’s eagerness to congratulate President Joe Biden on his win, Trump said of Benjamin Netanyahu in their 90-minute interview for the book: "Fuck him," making a point of declaring "I haven’t spoken to him since." In a conversation with Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Ravid reports that two full years later, Trump and Netanyahu still haven’t exchanged a word. On the occasion of the publication of his book in English - with new chapters updating the state of the Abraham Accords under the Biden administration, Ravid offers a look behind the scenes of his two lengthy interviews with Trump and how eager he was to express his unhappiness with Netanyahu’s behavior. When Trump used the F-word, "It was at the end of a 20-minute monologue about all the bad things he thought about Netanyahu," Ravid shared, saying the interview revealed to him that the Trump-Netanyahu bromance "was like watching a show for four years. And then you realize that everything you saw was just BS, because the reality between those two was completely different." Also on this week’s podcast, Haaretz English Editor in Chief Esther Solomon and correspondent Simon Waldman in Istanbul assess the political situation in Turkey after the election results leading to a second-round face-off for the presidency between incumbent Tayyip Erdogan and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. According to Waldman, the first round outcome is “the worst-case scenario” for the opposition.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Israel assassinated three senior members of Islamic Jihad and killed at least ten civilians in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in the wee hours of Tuesday morning in a military operation, the country tensely braced for expected retaliation.  Haaretz national security analyst Amos Harel joined Haaretz Weekly host Allison Kaplan Sommer on Tuesday to assess what has been dubbed Operation Shield and Arrow. On the podcast, they discuss Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political motives for greenlighting the assassinations.   The operation, Harel says, “is mostly a result of Israeli domestic considerations. Last week, after the death of jailed Islamic Jihad terrorists in an Israeli jail after a long hunger strike, Islamic Jihad reacted by launching more than 100 rockets and mortar bombs towards Israeli towns and villages around the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu hesitated, receiving a lot of criticism from both the opposition and the protest movement, and from within his government. So I don't think he had much choice.” Harel addresses the many questions Israelis were asking themselves Tuesday: should Israel batten down the hatches for a major extended military conflict with both Islamic Jihad and with Hamas in Gaza? What are the chances the conflict could extend to the West Bank and Israel’s northern border? How aggressively will the Biden White House move to lower the flames and could the tense relationship between Washington and Jerusalem affect the US reaction to this crisis?   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it time for the international community to stop talking about a ‘two-state solution’ for Israel and the Palestinians, and begin instead to grapple with a ‘one-state reality’? That’s the argument four leading political scientists recently made in a thought-provoking, and provocative, article that was published in Foreign Affairs. Two of the authors, Profs. Shibley Telhami and Marc Lynch, joined the Haaretz Weekly podcast to explain why they are calling on decision makers in Washington and elsewhere to ‘drop the façade’ and recognize an ‘uncomfortable reality’, and what could be the policy consequences of such a step. In their conversation with host Amir Tibon, they also discuss the prospect of violence and instability in the region, the impact of Netanyahu’s new government, and the political crisis in the Palestinian national movement. Read more on the one-state reality and the two-state solution, on Haaretz.com: Israeli-Palestinian poll shows support for two-state solution at all-time low So You Don’t Like the Two-state Solution? Meet the One-state Model CIA chief sees ‘unhappy resemblance’ between current tensions and leadup to second IntifadaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prof. Karnit Flug was appointed as the first female governor of the Bank of Israel by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2013. Together they worked to stabilize and grow the country’s economy – particularly its flourishing high-tech sector.  Now, she tells Haaretz Weekly, she no longer recognizes Netanyahu. He's not the same leader. The prime minister has ignored the alarm bells that she and other experts have been ringing regarding the harm his controversial judicial overhaul will cause Israel's economy.  “The warnings by experts on the economic effects and the effects on our national security are not falling on ears that are listening,” she tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer. “It’s very hard to understand.”  Countries that have passed laws weakening their judicial branches, like Hungary and Poland,  have paid economic consequences. However, Flug stresses that the price is likely to be far higher in Israel. Not only will an expected decline in international credit ratings lead to “really detrimental long-term effects,” but the harm to the country’s high-tech sector would be particularly devastating. Unlike Poland and Hungary, she notes, Israel’s tech companies account for 10 percent of employment, 50 percent of exports and 25 percent of tax revenues.  Moreover, high-tech is “a very mobile sector” where companies can - and do - easily move to other countries.  “Our vulnerability is very, very strong,” says Flug, admitting that she is feeling “anxiety about what kind of country will be here for my children and for my grandchild.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Women’s rights in Israel are under danger, warns Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a legal scholar and founding director of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar Ilan University. The risk is coming from their own government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu a host of far-right, ultra-religious parties. The judicial overhaul led by Netanyahu, Halperin-Kaddari explains, poses great risks to Israeli women, since “the weakening of the power of the High Court of Justice will have a devastating impact on the ability of women to fight back against discriminatory laws.”  In a conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, she adds that “We have the clear examples of states in Europe who have been through this. It is exactly the way that Poland had gone, as well as Hungary and Turkey. And in each of these states, it was - and it still is - women who are paying the highest price.”1 She applauds the use of the image of the women in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel-turned-TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale” as having been effective in focusing the Israeli public’s attention on these imminent threats. “The intentions of this government regarding women are very clear,” she says. “I truly fear that all these dystopian visions of the future are totally realistic.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.