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Hamas's rule in Gaza is a theocratic dictatorship. But its roots lie in the 19th-century movement for Islamic reform that believes modernization, science and even political liberalization. How did the great liberalizing theologians of the late 19th century, from Al-Afghani to Abduh to Rida, become Hamas?

Join us for a story that raises the startling possibility that the deradicalization of Gaza could come from within.

This episode is sponsored by “the Frozen Chosen, Haviv's supportive community from Minnesota."

And as has become a podcast tradition, this episode is dedicated to Netta Epstein, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists in his home in Kibbutz K'far Aza on the morning of Oct. 7th. In his last selfless act, he heroically jumped on a grenade, saving the life of his fiancé Irene. Netta was well known in many communities, but we focus on him today because Netta spent four summers at Herzl Camp in Wisconsin.

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If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Jerusalem Day falls on May 25th this year. It is the day of Jerusalem's unification in the 1967 Six Day War, and so a symbol of both Jewish rescue from the genocidal plans of its enemies, a palpable experience of strength and redemption just two decades after Auschwitz, and also a symbol of the perils and moral problems of Jewish power, the day Israel found itself ruling another people.

It is the day of the Jews' homecoming to their sacred places, but also of political grandstanding and ideological narrative-making.

Yet at its heart, Jerusalem Day is also about, well, Jerusalem, the real living city, the people who belong to it, and the grandeur of ordinary life in the shadow of great and ancient abstractions.

This episode is sponsored by Julie and Frank Cohen, who believe that this podcast is a way to teach our story, because understanding our past and present is key to building a better future.

And as has become a podcast tradition, it is dedicated to Kinneret Gat, teacher, mother, grandmother, who was killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

If the requirements of international law mean that Israel is effectively prohibited from defeating its enemies or protecting its borders, should Israelis turn their backs on international law? Why do we need "law?" Isn't it enough to just do our best to be as moral as possible?

After all, the institutions of international law seem so unfair to Israel. Just this past year, Israel was made to stand in judgment, accused of genocide, before a judicial panel whose president hails from an enemy country (Lebanon) and then left half-way through the proceedings to serve as the prime minister of that country. That is, the top judge who sat in judgment of Israel was campaigning in the political system of an enemy state.Then there are the many reports that accuse the ICC's prosecutor of rushing to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders without bothering with normal procedures because he was trying to cover for credible sexual assault accusations against him?

If the institutions cannot be trusted and the rules themselves are abused by every one of Israel's enemies, is this really a "law?" Can it ever be applied fairly?

I ask former IDF legal advisor Ben Wahlhaus, who spent 12 years as an international law officer whose duties included counseling senior officers on the legality of military operations, including during the Gaza war.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Sapir, the quarterly journal edited by Pulitzer-prize-winning commentator Bret Stephens. If you’re in the US, you can get this excellent journal sent to you absolutely free by going to http://sapirjournal.org/AskHaviv. Please use the link. It helps the podcast if they know we sent you.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

After a delay (Haviv got a bad flu), we're happy to share a great panel with Haviv and Prof. John Spencer that took place at the Woodbury Jewish Center in Woodbury, New York on May 7.Thank you to Rabbi Jason Fruithandler and Rob Dwek for hosting, and to the Malin family for sponsoring the speaker series this event was part of.

Haviv and John talked about whether victory was in the cards against Hamas, what it would require, and whether Israeli society would persevere; about claims of starvation and genocide and the role of propaganda in conflict; about whether Gazans all support Hamas; about the distinction between civilian and combatant and what it might mean for the IDF to be, as many Israel defenders say, the "most moral" army; about Netanyahu's leadership and politicking over the past 19 months; about whether Israel could go it alone on Iran; and finally, about what the rise of a new American antisemitism might mean for the biggest diaspora Jewish community in all of history.

Lots and lots of topics, so it went on a bit longer than our usual episodes.

This episode is sponsored by someone who asked to remain anonymous and to dedicate the episode to someone who fell on October 7. We are dedicating the episode to Yoram Bar-Sinai, architect, kibbutznik and grandpa, who died age 75 in a gunbattle with Hamas terrorists while defending the home of his daughter Ruti in Kibbutz Be'eri. Yoram died in that firefight, but not before forcing the Hamas gunmen to give up on the house, saving his daughter and grandchildren who were inside. May his memory be a blessing.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Qatar has just 330,000 citizens but controls vast wealth due to its plentiful natural gas. It has used that wealth to support radical and violent terrorist groups and regimes throughout the Middle East and to wield enormous influence in the West, including among American politicians and universities.In today's episode, I asked Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and host of its Morning Brief podcast, if Qatar really is as bad as Israelis think, and if so, what should be done about it.We discuss Doha's ideological commitments and central role in building Hamas into an organization capable of carrying out the October 7 massacre; how its immense donations to elite American universities helped drive radicalization on campus; and whether the Trump administration is able or willing to hold the Qataris to account.Today’s episode is sponsored by Sapir, the quarterly journal edited by Pulitzer-prize-winning commentator Bret Stephens. If you’re in the US, you can get this wonderful journal of ideas sent to you absolutely free by going to http://sapirjournal.org/AskHaviv. Please use the link. It helps the podcast.On May 15, Sapir are initiating the Sapir Debates, a series of live debates on issues facing the Jewish people. The first debate will take place at 92NY on May 15 at 7 pm. Former Obama chief of staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel and former Trump special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt will debate the topic: “Is Donald Trump good for the Jews?”To purchase tickets to the inaugural Sapir debate, go to http://sapirjournal.org/sapirdebate.Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠ If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

As the Trump administration tries to strike a deal curtailing Iran's nuclear program, I turned to Dr. Sharona Mazalian Levi, an Iran expert and proud Persian Jew, to try to take us past the headlines and political elites to the conditions and hopes of ordinary Iranians.

Dr. Mazalian paints a dire picture. Desperate shortages of clean water, electricity and gas, a collapsed currency, a third of the population under the poverty line, an oppressive religious police, the highest rate of executions in the world, severe air pollution and environmental degradation -- and a regime more interested in exporting its "revolution" than tackling any of these problems.

Iran, one of the most energy-rich places on Earth, is "a poor nation in a rich country."

Today’s episode is sponsored by the Sapir, the quarterly journal edited by Pulitzer-prize-winning commentator Bret Stephens. If you’re in the US, you can get this excellent journal sent to you absolutely free by going to http://sapirjournal.org/AskHaviv. Please use the link. It helps the podcast if they know we sent you.

Sapir are initiating the Sapir Debates, a series of live debates on issues facing the Jewish people. The first debate will take place at 92NY on May 15 at 7 pm.

Former Obama chief of staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel and former Trump special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt will debate the topic: “Is Donald Trump good for the Jews?”

To purchase tickets to the inaugural SAPIR debate, go to http://sapirjournal.org/sapirdebate.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Palestinian advocates like to quip that the current war "didn't begin on October 7." That's true, of course, though unhelpful. It didn't begin in any one specific place. There are no singular first causes in history. When we choose the beginning of the story, we choose its framing and meaning.For most Israeli Jews, the story of the current war might be said to have begun in the fall of 2000, in the great collapse of Oslo that still casts its long shadow on the Israeli political psyche.This is that story.Today’s episode is sponsored by Pennyweight Prizefighter, a small business dedicated to preserving the history and craftsmanship of antique and vintage fine jewelry. In a post October 7th world, pennyweight has become more committed than ever to making vintage and new Judaica available to anyone who feels compelled to honor these symbols with something as precious as gold and diamonds worn close to the heart. Check out pennyweight prizefighter on Instagram or pennyweightprizefighter.com.Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠ If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Passover is upon us, the seder is Saturday night.Freedom, the Sages teach, is not an end, it is a path; no mere escape from Pharaoh's tyranny but a becoming, filled with substance and responsibility and devotion; no one-off achievement but a ceaseless struggle to secure and deepen who and what we are.This bonus episode offers a few short thoughts that I teach my children at our seder each year about the meaning of this holiday, and thus the meaning of our peoplehood and freedom.This episode is sponsored by the Sapir Journal, a wonderful quarterly journal devoted to ideas for a thriving Jewish future, edited by the Pulitzer-prize-winning Bret Stephens.If you live in the United States, you can now receive SAPIR in the mail absolutely free. You can sign up for your free subscription by going to sapirjournal.org/AskHaviv.Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠ If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

The Abraham Accords have the potential to transform the Middle East. The very fact that they survived the Gaza war proves their resilience. Indeed, trade between Israel and its Abraham Accords partners has risen dramatically and stayed high through the war.And now the “kit” of dozens of agreements drafted between Israel and the UAE, from the overarching peace agreement to treaties on cellphone network interoperability and double taxation, stands ready to be copied over to a Israeli-Saudi peace.But will the Saudi normalization go forward? What would it take? Does it depend on what happens in Gaza, and can this Israeli government deliver the conditions in Gaza that would facilitate such a peace?I posed these questions to Shiri Fein Grossman, the former head of regional affairs at the Israeli National Security Council who was one of the key coordinators and planners of the Abraham Accords. Shiri now serves as CEO of the Israel-Africa Relations Institute.This episode was sponsored by a donor who chose to remain anonymous. At her request we will continue the tradition of remembering someone we lost on Oct 7. Today we remember Roi Moshe, 36, a firefighter from Ashkelon, who was killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7 while trying to return home from a night shift at the Be’er Sheva station.Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠ If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Is Zionism colonialism? Are Jews an authentic people, or merely a religion? What about Palestinians? What are Zionism’s moral costs, and what are those of opposing Zionism?

I asked one of my teachers, Hebrew University historian Prof. Alexander Yakobson, some of the great questions now being advanced in Western academic and progressive discourses about Israel.

Alex has that special fearlessness of an intellectual who takes the other side's position seriously. It makes his answers all the more valuable.

This episode was sponsored by an anonymous donor in honor of Battalion 363 of the Harel Brigade, which is an infantry brigade in the IDF where the sponsor’s loved one serves. May all our sons and daughters come home safely.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

What if everybody is right on judicial reform? Israel's highest court is immensely and unreasonably powerful. But if it is weakened, what other checks stand in the way of the tyranny of the majority, that great Achilles' heel of democracy since the dawn of Western civilization?

This question is especially urgent for Israel, whose politics are more Middle Eastern than Western, more tribal than ideological.

It's not unreasonable to weaken the court, but it would be disastrous to do so without broad trust and buy-in, and without addressing the desperate lack of other checks and balances in the country's constitutional order.

It's time for a more serious left-wing critique and a more responsible right-wing reform. Anything less will only cause harm.

Thank you to Jason and Lauriel Klinghoffer for sponsoring this episode.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Abandoning the Democrats is a losing strategy for Israel, says Rep. Ritchie Torres, perhaps the most outspoken supporter of Israel in the US House of Representatives. The fight over Israel inside American politics is a proxy for a much larger battle over the future of the Democratic Party and the character of America, he argues. Those who don't like Israel, he says, tend to take a dim view of the promise of America.

And who is Clarence Jones, and why does Torres consider him "the greatest living American?"

Thank you to Jason and Lauriel Klinghoffer for sponsoring this episode in honor of Jason’s grandmother, Nusia Klinghoffer, a holocaust survivor who passed away last year.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Warfighting has resumed in Gaza. Israel's message is clear: Gaza's future depends on Hamas releasing hostages and surrendering its control of the territory.

But there is a larger pivot underway, a regional strategic realignment. Hamas once hoped its attack on Israel would trigger a broader regional war. In a sense, it succeeded, relegating Gaza to a marginal arena in the larger strategic struggle. That alone, gives Israel a freer hand to resume war whenever it wants. Hamas is now truly strategically alone.

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

This is a podcast about history, but also about this moment in history.

Today's episode is a special one. Many of you asked about the hostages, about the activism of their families, about their shattering experiences on October 7 and how they have worked to piece their lives back together since.

I can think of no better way to begin to answer these questions than by posing them to our good friend Shaked Haran.

There's no one story of the hostage families. Their experiences vary, their opinions on the war differ. All their stories are powerful and excruciating, and often also unexpectedly inspiring; all are worth hearing.

And Shaked's voice stands out among them for its clarity and courage.

Shaked lost three family members in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be'eri, including her beloved father Avshalom, or Avshal. Seven more family members, including sister Adi, brother-in-law Tal, three-year-old niece Yahel, eight-year-old nephew Naveh, and 12-year-old cousin Noam, were dragged into Gaza as hostages.

Just two weeks ago, the last family member still held by Hamas, Tal Shoham, was finally released, closing a long and painful chapter in the life of this extraordinary family.

We sat down to talk about that day, about what it feels like to search desperately for your family after a massacre, about finding the strength amid the pain and fear to launch a globe-spanning fight to rescue your loved ones. We looked at Israel's social fractures and at what holds us all together, about a morally confused world and an enemy territory that could still, she believes, flourish if it managed to come out from beneath the shadow of the murderers of her family.

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Israeli Jews are the last surviving remnant of dozens of devastated Jewish communities across three continents. How did this history shape them? What do they understand about the world that few others see?

Join Haviv Rettig Gur for a deep dive into the historical experience that shaped this largest community of Jews ever.

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.
Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnythingIf you would like to sponsor an episode please email haviv@askhavivanything.com

In our first interview episode, Haviv Rettig Gur sits down (virtually) with Prof. John Spencer of West Point, one of the foremost experts in urban warfare who has made a special study of Israeli warfighting tactics and strategy.

Many subscribers to this podcast have asked us why Israel doesn’t seem to have won this war, why Hamas is still standing after 17 months of fighting and why Israel must still negotiate for its hostages.

For answers we turned to Prof. Spencer. We learned about the IDF’s astonishing successes, such as its groundbreaking tactical innovations in tunnel warfare. And we learned about the gaping lacuna at the heart of Israel’s strategy in Gaza — the reason it still hasn’t won the war.

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything

If you would like to sponsor an episode please email haviv@askhavivanything.com

Recorded Thursday, February 20th

Israelis watched horrified on Thursday, as Hamas gunmen conducted a ceremony handing over four coffins, two of them with the bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, aged 1 and 4, when they were murdered in Gaza, along with their mother Shiri. Oded Lifshitz, 83, was the fourth body handed over to Israel. Around the ceremony, Gazan civilians cheered and threw rice, people brought their kids to watch.

What should we make of this gruesome spectacle, of a festival conducted over the coffins of little children?

Some thoughts on what Israelis, and with them, the whole Jewish world, just witnessed.

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything

American Jews constitute the biggest, wealthiest, most influential and safest Jewish diaspora community in Jewish history, and also among the most Jewishly illiterate and profoundly anxious about their future.

There's a good reason this immense and powerful community is also culturally weak and unsure of itself. There is deep history behind its illiteracy, a story of tragedy and trauma, rebellion and rebuilding.

We unpack it all in this episode.

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything

It’s hard for a modern Jew to grasp the depth of marginalization and ostracism that even the most assimilated of Austrian Jews experienced in the 1890s. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, began his journey as a passionate assimilationist, a deep believer in European modernity and Germanic culture. It was only when these hopes were dashed that he turned, as a drowning man to a life raft, to political Zionism.

Here is the untold story of how Herzl found Zionism. (Spoiler: It wasn’t the Dreyfus Affair.)

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything

*Recorded Saturday night, February 8, 2025*First reflections in response to Hamas's hostage release ceremony in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, when Israelis discovered the extent to which the hostages had been tormented and starved.

Episode first aired Sunday on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything).