Unholy: Two Jews on the News

In an episode recorded before Israel’s reported targeting of Iranian sites in the early hours of Friday morning, Yonit and Jonathan discuss the ongoing fallout from Iran’s attack on Israel six days earlier — assessing the arguments and dilemmas that have gripped Israel’s policymakers. Plus: a conversation about the future for Israelis and Palestinians when the current war in Gaza is finally over, with Israeli scholar and thinker Fa...

Yonit and Jonathan talk through an unprecedented night in which Iran launched a direct attack on Israeli territory for the first time - and in which a series of Arab nations joined the US, UK, France and Israel itself in protecting the country from a sustained Iranian drone and missile attack. How will - and how should - Benjamin Netanyahu respond? Is there a way to retaliate without triggering a wider regional war? And what are th...

Israeli writer and satirist Etgar Keret and US broadcasting legend Ira Glass have been friends for two decades - but October 7 put that friendship under strain. They found themselves seeing the same events differently. Like Yonit and Jonathan, one was inside, the other outside. The four of them talk about that, about grief, friendship - and much else. Plus an update on the looming threat from Iran and the state of the war in Gaza —...

The war that began on October 7 is six months old: to mark the occasion, a special episode with three unique voices. Yonit and Jonathan hear from Israel's pre-eminent military analyst, Amos Harel, on the state of the conflict in Gaza - what's happened, what might come next and the prospects for a wider clash with Iran and Hizbullah. They speak with Rabbi Angela Buchdal of New York about how October 7 shook the Jewish diaspora, and ...

In a week when the US withheld its protective veto at the UN Security Council, leaving Israel isolated, Yonit and Jonathan discuss the deteriorating state of the US-Israel relationship - and what logic might be steering Benjamin Netanyahu to risk such a rupture with Washington. Plus: the looming battle over the ultra-orthodox and military service, and a farewell to two pioneers - one a groundbreaking economist, the other the Jewish...

Two legends of American politics – the hosts of Hacks on Tap, David Axelrod and Mike Murphy - join Yonit and Jonathan for a podcast double date as they talk about the Biden-Netanyahu rift over arms and aid, why Chuck Schumer might have accidentally helped rather than hurt the Israeli prime minister – and how Donald Trump could be the beneficiary. Plus: Purim, a landmark court decision and why 007 might soon be a Jewish number.

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In an exclusive interview, Zone of Interest executive producer Danny Cohen tells Yonit and Jonathan why he believes the film’s director Jonathan Glazer got his Oscars speech so badly wrong. Plus: an update on the war, aid and the widening rift between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu - and a conversation with Rachel Cockerell, author of an acclaimed new book about a long forgotten alternative Zion, deep in the heart of Texas.

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Yossi Cohen is the former head of the Mossad, a former national security adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu - and often talked about as a future prime minister of Israel. In a rare interview in English, he tells Yonit and Jonathan how he sees the intelligence failures that led to 7 October, his thoughts on the nature of responsibility and on the case for a Palestinian state - and how he is contemplating an entry into politics. Plus: the...

Five months after 7 October, and with talk of an imminent hostage deal receding thanks to deadly events on the ground in Gaza, Yonit and Jonathan take stock of what the war has done to life in Israel - and to Jews in the diaspora. They’re joined by writer and comedian David Baddiel as his landmark book, Jews Don’t Count, is published in Hebrew and ask if the attitudes he laid bare when the book was first published have changed - or...

Not a brand new episode this week - instead, another chance to hear one of the most impactful episodes we’ve ever aired. Back in November, as tensions emerged between Israeli and diaspora views of the war, Yonit and Jonathan had a frank, heartfelt conversation about they saw things, one month after 7 October. 

We'll be back with a new episode next week.

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It's become rare to hear Israelis and Palestinians in conversation with each other during these last, painful months. Yonit and Jonathan bring together Israeli former intelligence analyst Dr Michael Milshtein and the Palestinian activist and commentator Samer Sinijlawi for a candid discussion of what happens to Gaza and Israel 'the day after' - and ask if that day is ever coming. Plus: Benjamin Netanyahu resists pressure from insid...

As talks aimed at a release of hostages and a pause in fighting grind on, Yonit and Jonathan look at what both Israel and Hamas stand to gain - and lose - from any deal. And they take a fresh round of listener questions that have come in from all over the world - on Gaza the day after, new leadership in Israel and how Jews and Israelis who disagree can keep talking. Plus: Australian chutzpah and a French mensch.

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As hopes rise and fall of a breakthrough that would bring the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and a pause in fighting in Gaza, Yonit and Jonathan speak to Zohar Palti, former head of the Mossad intelligence directorate about how the key decisions are being made - and whether those in charge are getting it right. Plus: UNRWA, the meaning of the ICJ’s decision and is the Israeli far right serious about resettling Gaza?

To ...

More grim landmarks in the war between Israel and Hamas - as all eyes turn to The Hague for the first pronouncement of the International Court of Justice on Israel’s conduct of its operations in Gaza. Plus: Yonit and Jonathan discuss the increasing tension between Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden - and a Holocaust Memorial Day like no other. Finally, stiff competition for this week’s chutzpah and mensch awards - and we discover a n...

The war between Israel and Hamas is not fought out only through bombs and rockets - it’s also waged in the media, on campus, online, and even in the corporate world. Few have a better grasp of where those worlds meet than Profesor Scott Galloway. Yonit and Jonathan ask him if we’re witnessing a permanent shift in the perception of brand Israel - and hear how his own stand has cost him dear. Plus: the battle to bring Israel’s hostag...

As the war reaches an important milestone, Israel faces a legal challenge in the International Court of Justice in the Hague: Yonit and Jonathan go into that full throttle, and are then joined by the world's leading authority on the morality of war, philosopher Michael Walzer. Plus: why Israel's politicians chose to announce the war had "shifted a stage" in English rather than Hebrew, and a serial winner of Unholy's chutzpah award ...

The new year began ominously, with rockets in Israel, an assassination in Beirut and talk of a widening of the war. Yonit and Jonathan discuss all that - along with this year's US presidential election and the changing face of the Democratic party - with former White House press secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki. Plus: the results of an exclusive Unholy/Morning Consult poll of US attitudes to Israel and Hamas; Israel's Supreme Cou...

Yonit and Jonathan look back on a turbulent year - which shook Israel and the Jewish world - catch up on an eventful week, and speak with the woman who has become one of the most prominent faces and voices of the hostage families: Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the US-born mother of 23 year old Hersh, captured by Hamas at the Nova music festival on 7 October and held in Gaza ever since.

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Pressure on the Israeli government is mounting from within and without. As the international community debates exactly what kind of ceasefire it demands of Israel, many of the hostage families urge an immediate pause to bring their loved ones home - a plea that gained new intensity after the mistaken killing by the IDF of three fleeing hostages in Gaza. Yonit and Jonathan discuss all that, together with a new poll which suggests Is...