The Promised Podcast
By Shaharit: The Thinktank for New Israeli Politics
To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to podcasts.
Podcast Description
Being a podcast for anyone who wants to understand Israel beyond the headlines
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Promised Podcast-All Glory to Gelfand Edtion | This week, as Israeli Boris Gelfand challenges Indian Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship, we discuss three topics that have little to do with the Game of Kings: (1) The scheduling of new Knesset elections for September 4th, and their shocking cancellation after PM Netanyahu and Kadima head Mufaz cut a late-night deal to form a huge “national unity government”, (2) The sad, unnerving, continuing hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and (3) the legacy of Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, the brilliant, uncompromising father of Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently passed away at the age of 102. All this and burning sh*t in honor of Shimon bar Yochai, a hundred years of Jewish football, and Jazz-envy. | 5/13/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
2 |
Promised Podcast-Sex Drugs & Sustainabilty Edition | Being a discussion of (1) the halting entry of “the Greens” into Israeli politics, and their prospects of influencing the Knesset and City Halls around the country, (2) a surprising trend towards legislating feminist ideals, as new laws aim to limit breast augmentation surgery and skinny, skinny models, and (3) the use of psychiatric drugs by some Haredim to tamp down unacceptable sexual and homosexual urges. All this and Don’s relatives in the Palmach Museum, remembering lost soldiers, and the Knesset’s charming “Bible circle” study group! | 4/27/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
3 |
Promised Podcast - Happy and We Know It Edition | Discussions of (1) a new joint secular-religious school system, recently approved by the Knesset, and its relationship to quantum physics, (2) the kerfuffle around Gunther Grass’ poem decrying Israel’s threats against Iran, and insinuating that Germans fail to oppose it because they are afraid to be labeled anti-semites, and (3) a new study finding that Israel is near the top of the list of the “happiest” nations in the world. All this and the moguls of the Golan, cool border-crossing literature by author Eli Amir, and the Palestinian Israeli woman who won the TV reality show dedicated to Mizrahi Jewish music, and how she became a gay icon! | 4/15/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
4 |
Promise Podcast - One Life to Livni Edition | This week, discussions of (1) results of the primaries in Kadima, Israel’s largest political party, which ousted Tzippi Livni and brought to the helm former Army Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, (2) the Supreme Court’s rejection of a deal between Likud negotiators and settler-residents of the illegal outpost of Migron, and what it means about the settlements and the rule of law in the occupied territories, and (3) a new Israel Air Force IPhone app, a game aimed at drawing teens more enthusiastically into the orbit of IAF, and what it says about changing military mores. All this and shaking our shamouti, dancing the haggadah, and shooting from the top of the key with Karl Marx! | 3/30/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
5 |
Promised Podcast - No Place Like Dome Edition | This week, Elisheva Goldberg, assistant editor of the hot new blog “Zion Square” (of the Daily Beast family), joins us to discuss her essay critical of the decision to give Israel’s highest honor, The Israel Prize, to a doyen of the settler movement, Rabbi Hayim Druckman. Also: a discussion of how the deployment of new missile shield technology, code named “Iron Dome,” may signal a change in Israel’s age-old military philosophy, and may change the nature of the politics of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and a discussion of whether the selection of a businessman instead of a professor to be the new president of Haifa University marks the end of the universities as we knew them. All this, and virtuouso ivory-tickling, dreams of the Orient Express, and hard-drinking, hard-rocking puppets! | 3/15/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
6 |
Promised Podcast - Nuclear Poultry Edition | A discussion of (1) PM Netanyahu & President Obama at the AIPAC convention, (2) the legacy of Menachem Begin, as we mark the 20th anniversary of his death, and (3) the increasing agitation, rising to a fevered level, with which Jews around the world this week discussed obsessively political intrigues and threats of genocide issuing from Iran. All this, and Purim in Tel Aviv, Persian delicacies, and a hot new Israeli news website! | 3/8/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
7 |
Promised Podcast-More Damn Dialectics Edition | Eilon, Emily and Noah discuss (1) the legacy of retiring Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch and her legacy of judicial activism, (2) the advisability of instituting a national service scheme, in which Israelis who don’t go into the army (especially ultra-orthodox and Palestinian Israelis) would serve instead, and (3) proposed legislation mandating that one of the top two positions in each political party be filled by a woman and, more generally, the place of women in electoral politics. All this and poetry from the bench, rubbing shoulders with famous sculptors, and collaborating with Malian calabash geniuses! | 3/1/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
8 |
Greased with the Blood of the Workers Edition | Don, Emily & Noah discuss (1) recent strikes in Israel over contract labor and outsourcing, and what they say about the state of Israeli unions and workers, (2) Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s City Council decision to seek approval to run busses on the Sabbath, contravening generations of a “status quo” that kept busses in their depots on that day, and (3) Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s proposal to overhaul Israel’s election process. All this and bovinity and piscinity in the ancient Jaffa Port, walking the Dead Sea conduits to Jordan, and Sir Isaac Newton online from Jerusalem! | 2/23/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
9 |
Promised Podcast - Trifecta of Tragedy Edition | Emily, Don & Noah discuss (1) the arrival of a new international retail chain, “American Eagle Outfitters”, and the impact of globalized and globalizing trade on Israel’s economy, culture and society, (2) a new law criminalizing the patronage of prostitutes, and the scourge of human trafficking here, and (3) the perhaps troubling place of the Holocaust in Israeli political discourse. All this, and hiking the Israel Trail, watching Israeli films at Sundance, and skiing the freshly carpeted slopes of Mount Gilboa! | 2/16/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
10 |
PP Live!-Putting the Art Back in Liberal Arts | A discussion in front of a group of students from America’s best liberal arts colleges, on a junket organized by “Birthright-Taglit.” Subjects include the hopes and dreams that brought us to Israel, and how they’ve been met and disappointed, as well as a ranging consideration of politics, environment and culture. There are some problems with sound on this pioneering effort, and it ends abruptly (when the power went out in the Tel Aviv building in which we recorded). We’re working on these things, and hope they’re not too intrusive in this first try. Join the conversation (and "Like" us) at facebook.com/promisedpodcast | 2/9/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
11 |
Promised Podcast - Canada is Just Super! Edition | A discussion of (1) this week’s primaries in the Likud, which reaffirmed Benjamin Netanyahu as head of the party, but also saw a strong showing for Moshe Feiglin’s far-right settler’s faction, (2) the growing religiosity of Israelis, as reflected in a once-every-ten-years survey of “Beliefs, Observance and Values” released this week, and (3) Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird’s assertion that attempts to delegitimize Israel is “the New Anti-Semitism.” All this and singing in the rain, cosying up to the Germans, and the art of menstrual blood! | 2/2/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
12 |
Leftists Wear White after Labor Day Edition | A discussion of (1) whether Ashkenazi elites run the country, as charged by economist Shlomo Maoz, who argued with passion (in a recent lecture that cost him his job) that ethnic prejudice is still rife in banks, universities, courts and more, (2) the arrival of the first “Better Place” electric cars on Israeli streets, whose swappable batteries may or may not be a big step forward for Israel’s environment and economy, and (3) watchdog groups that find that at least one in ten Israeli university professors are traitors who ought to be blacklisted. All that and corporations acting cool, the people behind the street signs, and Janis Ian socking gold in her furs, should the Cossacks come! | 1/26/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
13 |
A Boy is Losing Faith in Israel! Edition | A discussion of (1) Sheldon Adelson, who aside from funding Newt Gingerich’s Superpac also bankrolls Yisrael Hayom, Israel’s biggest (and free-est) daily newspaper which never has a bad word to say about Benjamin Netanyahu, (2) the state of Israelis of Ethiopian extraction, in the shadow of big demonstrations over the racism and discrimination they face, and (3) the contest-winning essay by a Jewish teen who finds that the meaning of Martin Luther King’s legacy is that Zionism ought be fought with the same determination as Jim Crow. All this and Jacuzzi agronomy, dead people telling tales, and women who are (flash) mobbed up! | 1/19/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
14 |
Promised Podcast - Son, Sand & Water Edition | A discussion of (1) decorum - or lack of it - in the Knesset after one Knesset member was censured for dousing another Knesset member with a glass of water, flung in a fit of pique, (2) a new crop of celebrity candidates for the next national elections, including Noam Shalit, the father of the recently freed hostage, Gilad Shalit, and (3) the struggle to save the desert dunes of Samar, and what it says about Israeli environmentalism. All this and appellation veneration, pluralism on the football pitch, and Chayim Nachman Bialik for kids with autism, bringing spectacle to the spectrum! | 1/12/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
15 |
Hundred Percent of Grandmothers Polled Edition | 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} All that and the blind leading the sighted, and a William Blakean look at Israeli women with big voices and big souls. | 1/5/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
16 |
Promised Podcast-Right Good Willie-Waught Edition | A wrap up of 2011, including discussion of (1) our varying top-five-stories-of-the-year lists, and (2) the most undereported important stories of the year, including Obama's better-than-generally-thought record on Israel, the evolving nature of secular Jewish culture in Israel, and the regretable durability of media tropes, long after their accuracy has waned. All that, and daycare with Channah Senesh, the revenge Hoover, and the enduring charms of Jerusalem! | 12/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
17 |
Promised Podcast-Lessons of the Young People | A discussion of (1) whether Israel's chattering class, especially the press, are immoderate in tone and substance when discussing the country's flaws and shortcomings, (2) a recent attack by settler extremists on an IDF base and army officers, and (3) the quickly growing numbers of Israeli teens who give a year of volunteer service before enlisting in the army, what they do, and what it all says about the next generation of Israelis (with guest expert, Ayelet Schwartz, Eilon's rather inspiring daughter). All this and a crazy talented family entertaining juggernaut, bikes for hire, Vaclav Havel and Franz Kafka! | 12/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
18 |
Promised Podcast - 3 Funerals & a Wedgie Edition | A discussion of (1) Efforts to fashion a decent and sustainable policy towards refugees. Each day brings to Israel scores of refugees and migrant workers, mostly from the Sudan and Eritrea, who suffered terribly at home and while walking across north Africa to escape to Israel. Israel has neither found a way to absorb the 50-odd thousand who have come, nor to keep them from coming, (2) Halting efforts to advance a “Human Rights agenda”, and (3) Whether Newt Gingrich’s persuasion that the Palestinians are and “invented people” is good or bad for the Jews. All that, plus a David-vs.Goliath soccer story, Don’s week of death & a classical-Hip Hop mashup at the Opera! | 12/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
19 |
Promised Podcast-The "Daphne, What is it?" Edition | A discussion of (1) a bill being debated by the Knesset that would limit foreign government contributions to human rights organizations, which prompted Hillary Clinton to worry aloud about the decline of Israeli democracy, (2) some guy's efforts to organize through Facebook an "emigration support group" of folks who will leave Israel and settle together in a place they like better, (3) the kerfuffle over Israeli government internet ads trying to persuade Israelis in America to "return home" because if they don't, their spouses and kids will be foreign to them. All this, and Agnon pondering textiles, Yids on TV, and Frankfurt School graffitti! | 12/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
20 |
The Lenin, Trotsky & Stalin Edition | Don is back (!) for a discussion of (1) a new report indicating Israeli's eroding faith in the quality of their future and of major public institutions, (2) the kerfuffle over a NYT Op-Ed accusing Israel of "pinkwashing", or using its relatively liberal attitudes towards Lesbians & Gays to occlude pernicious policies and sell itself to foreign tourists and politicians, and (3) the state of the arts in Israel, and whether they need more government support. All that, and Ethiopian festivals, art-loving cabbies and flirtations with Leon Trotsky! | 12/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
21 |
Promised Podcast - The Kids are Screwed Edition | With special guest, Emily Silverman, Israel's leading expert on social planning, affordable housing, and new urbanism! A discussion of (1) why Noah's apartment is so damn expensive (and everyone else's, too), (2) the changing demographics of the Israeli army, which a report this week shows is drawing fewer inductees from the big cities, and more from small towns and settlements in the occupied territories, and (3) American-born citizens of Israel, and our impact on the country. All that, and parks, shoes and environmentalist opera! | 11/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
22 |
The Wisdom of Taxi Drivers Edition | With special guest, Miriam Schler, the Director of the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crises Center and frequent commentator on women's issues for Israeli TV and radio! This week, a discussion of (1) The Supreme Court's unanimous and resounding rejection of ex-President Moshe Katsav's appeal of his rape conviction, (2) Knesset efforts to alter the way Supreme Court justices are selected, and whether or not this amounts to a threat to separation of powers, and (3) Google's decision to set up a high-tech incubator in Tel Aviv, and what it means for Israel to be a "Start-Up Nation." Plus, Darryl Strawberry in the Holy Land, feminist film and William Blake!! | 11/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
23 |
Promised Podcast-Try to Stay Serene & Calm Edition | A discussion of (1) the legacy of Yitzhak Rabin, as we mark the 16th anniversary of his assassination, (2) how news of the advanced state of Iran's nuclear program is being nervously greeted in Israel, and (3) the disappearance of women's faces and voices from advertisements and elsewhere in the public square, especially in Jerusalem, with its large ultra-orthodox citizenry. Plus, Cranes, Storks and Food, Food, Food! | 11/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
24 |
Promised Podcast - Stupidity or Ideology Edition | Being a discussion of (1) Anat Kamm, the 24 year old student convicted this week of passing military secrets, purloined during her army service, to an Israeli journalist, and sentenced to a 4 1/2 year imprisonment, (2) a government plan to resettle Negev Bedouin, and why the Bedouin object, and (3) the continue social protests, in light of a mass rally this week, and the opening of the Knesset Fall legislative session. Plus, comix, indie rock, and bauhaus from the inside out! | 11/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
25 |
Promised Podcast-Dead Folk in Youth Movements Edtn | Being a discussion of (1) the travails and trials of Israeli higher education, in light of the adjunct professors' threatened strike and the start of the new academic year, (2) Israel's relationships with its neighbors, in light of Tunisia's elections, a prisoner exchange with Egypt, and Turkey's hesitation accepting Israeli humanitarian assistance during its tragic earthquake, and (3) the purloining of "Population Registry" data, and its putative use by malevolent Ultra-orthodox malefactors. Also, "Bibi-Gump"! | 10/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
26 |
Promised Podcast-How Good It Is That You Came Home | Being a discussion of the return of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive for five years by Hamas in a Gaza basement, and including (1) a telephone interview with Dr. Gershon Baskin, the American-Israeli peace activist who provided a conduit for negotiations between the Israeli government, Hamas and the Egyptian mediator, and (2) discussions by the boys of the wisdom of the deal, the five-year public campaign and popular movement within Israel that pressured the Israeli government to make a deal, and (3) the politics behind the prisoner exchange deal that brought Shalit home, and in exchange freed 1027 Palestinian prisoners, including some responsible for deadly and notorious attacks on Israeli civilians. Plus, Zionism and virginity!!! | 10/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
27 |
Promised Podcast-Episode 01-Yiddisher Kupf Edition | Being a discussion of (1) Israel's newest Nobel Laureate, Dan Schechtman, and whether he is yet another sign of butt-kicking Yiddisher-Kupf-itude, and whether Israeli education today is good enough to produce another generation of Nobel Laureates, (2) the death of Hanan Porat, a winning, charismatic, firebrand founder of the settler movement, his legacy, and the state of the settler movement today, and (3) the mass resignation of Israel's medical residents, and the state of health care in Israel. Plus, protest poems in a Phil-Ochsian vein. | 10/11/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
28 |
Promised Podcast-More Scrolls, Less Porn Edition | Being a discussion of (1) big changes in the Israeli government's spending priorities, (2) a famous author's successful lawsuit that granted him the right no longer to be considered Jewish by the authorities, and (3) the continuing saga of the Palestinian Authority's efforts to found a Palestinian state, and Israel's reactions. Plus, Bicycles on Yom Kippur!!!!!! | 10/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
29 |
The Better Beta Edition - The Promised Podcast | Being a beta, boldly breaking the beta barrier, bringing a brashly better beta, including a discussion of crucial issues of the day: The Palestinian Entreaty to the UN for Recognition as a state, the continuing social protests that have rocked Israel since July, and the crucial primary elections in the Labor Party. Brought to you by Shaharit: A Think Tank for New Israeli Politics. | 9/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 29 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Inside Israel: Lefty, Edgy, Necessary!
A maverick Israeli professor, along with 2 brainy fellow wonks, offers razor sharp political insights and dishes up cultural tidbits that practically humanize Israel. On target and occasionally off color. Where have these guys been all my life? More please!
Terrific - Articulate, interesting, funny, enlightening
This is only the first episode, but already it's great. Three smart, funny guys discussing Israeli politics from a critical but appreciative perspective. Keep them coming!
Quality discussion
Really enjoy listening to an ongoing sincere, thoughtful conversation about the State of Israel and the state of Zionism. Also, Noa Efron's voice sounds exactly like Ira Glass, which is always good for an intellectual podcast.
Listeners also subscribed to
- Beyond the Pale
- Beyond the Pale
- View In iTunes
- JCC Conversations
- The JCC in Manhattan
- View In iTunes
- :-Israelisms Podcast
- Charley & Carol
- View In iTunes
