Long before the operational successes of the Mossad would become the stuff of legend in the espionage world, before the Twelve Day War, before Eli Cohen, before the Mossad itself had even come into being, a small ragtag band of courageous young Jews, without training or equipment, built the country’s first espionage arm to help the nascent Jewish state defend itself against its enemies.
Journalist and author Matti Friedman returns to the podcast to talk about his book, Spies of No Country, about the Mizrahi Jewish young men who became the Jewish state’s first spies in the Arab world. Their heroic, tragic, sometimes funny stories help us fill in the longstanding lacunae in the larger story of Israel’s founding and of present-day Israeli society by paying closer attention to the enormous role and influence played by Arab-world Jews in forging today’s Israel.
This episode was sponsored by the Lichterman Family of Jupiter, Florida, and dedicated to the memory and bravery of Aner Shapira, 22 from Jerusalem, who was slain in the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival on October 7. Aner attended the rave next to the Gaza border with a group of friends from Jerusalem, including his close childhood friend, Hersh Goldberg-Polin. When the rocket fire began, they left by car and stopped on the side of the road to seek safety in a roadside bomb shelter next to Kibbutz Re’im. Aner and his friends were among the last people to squeeze inside the shelter, where they soon realized that terrorists were gathering outside to attack. Aner positioned himself at the entrance to the shelter, where he caught and threw back seven grenades before the eighth exploded and killed him. Of the 27 people inside the shelter, only seven emerged alive. Those who survived did so because of Aner’s bravery.
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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
Professor Yannay Spitzer is an economic historian who has studied food and hunger. His efforts over the past month to get real reliable data on hunger out of Gaza and publicize it to Israelis, data that is neither delayed nor politicized like the many claims of rampant hunger made over the past 22 months that turned out to be either inaccurate or untrue, helped change the conversation in Israel and surge aid into the strip.
Professor Spitzer joins us to explain what went wrong, why Israeli officials thought there was much more food available to Gazans than there really was, why the UN's own numbers seem to agree with them even now, why it's so hard to get food to ordinary Gazans - and what all this tells us about the state of Hamas and the future of Gaza.
This episode was dedicated by an anonymous sponsor to the memory of the remarkable Herbert Pagani, artist, composer and author, and in particular to commemorate the essay he shared on French TV in the mid-1970s titled “Plea for my Land,” a powerful and timeless defense of Jews and Israel that should be heard by all. Pagani was a self-described leftist and humanist, and a passionate defender of Zionism.
You can find “Plea for my land” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPpYQGv_jDI
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.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
Aimen Dean was once a fervent young jihadi fighter, a passionate believer in radical Sunni Islam who had memorized the Quran by 12 and was fighting in the Bosnian jihad by 16.
Haviv talked to Aimen about the religious and psychological journey of a young jihadi, his experiences in the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, his recruitment by Bin Laden himself in the mountains of Afghanistan, and his sudden and powerful disillusionment, both political and religious, that led him to become an MI6 spy in Al Qaeda's ranks.
They talked about present-day Islam, the "deradicalization" that Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa underwent in recent years, possible better futures for Gaza and whether Israeli-Palestinian peace was still possible. We also talked about why he thinks it's time to end Western experiments in reforming Middle Eastern governance and fall back on what he sees as the most natural and inclusive form of government for the region: The paternalistic monarchy.
This episode was sponsored by David and Karen Divine, who asked to dedicate it to someone we lost on October 7. This episode, we remember Abed Rahman Ziyadne, 26 of Rahat, part of Israel's Bedouin Arab community, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists on the Zikim beach, north of Gaza, on October 7, 2023, along with his girlfriend, Yulia Chaban.
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.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
Our Patreon subscribers asked for a dvar Torah, a short homily, on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av, which commemorates many of the great tragedies of Jewish history, including and especially the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem millennia ago.
Tisha B'Av, Haviv argues, is a window into the Sages' conception of history, their view of the brokenness of the world reflected in the tragedies of history, and the power of the study of history to mend that brokenness.
This episode is sponsored by Alex and Betty Verjovsky in honor of Sayeret Tzanchanim, the reconnaissance company of the Paratroopers Brigade, in memory if their fallen and wounded, and the soldiers who have been fighting since October 7 and have paid a heavy price for Israel's defense. The sponsors' close friend, the unit's top NCO, is finally retiring after 35 years of service.
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.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
There is now hunger in Gaza, widespread and dangerous. It's less dire than Western media claims, but could reach those proportions if it isn't reversed through an aid surge.
How did we get to this point? What were Israeli officials thinking?
And what does the current crisis tell us about the state of the war?
This episode was sponsored by an anonymous sponsor who dedicated it to the bravery of our friend Shaked Haran, whose story is told in episode 5 of this podcast. On October 7, Shaked's father, uncle and aunt were killed in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be'eri, and seven members of her family, including her mother and two cousins aged 3 and 7 were taken hostage, launching a long and grueling fight for their liberation that Shaked helped lead for the family.
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.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
Welcome to a special episode of Ask Haviv Anything. This episode was a live conversation with author Yardena Schwartz taped last week at Martha's Vineyard and hosted by Chabad on the Vineyard.
Please note: Patreon subscribers have asked us to address the dramatic pivot in the IDF's strategy in Gaza and the question of widespread hunger there. We're now working on such an episode to provide an analysis and overview of what's happening and what it means. As always, if you have suggestions for topics, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything
The conversation with Yardena covers her book Ghosts of a Holy War about the 1929 Hebron massacre. We discuss the events of that year, what it tells us about the next century of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, and the startling parallels to October 7.
This episode's sponsor asked to remain anonymous but dedicated the episode to his Slovak Jewish Holocaust-survivor grandparents who survived Auschwitz, Mauthausen and other camps and moved to Israel at the founding of the state.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour was born and raised in Egypt before fleeing to the United States and dedicating his life to understanding how the Arab world came to be defined by state failure, religious extremism and all the rest of the region's many crises.
His conclusions, laid out in a recent essay in the magazine Mosaic, are an extraordinarily innovative new path. It isn't a crisis of internal Islamic failure, as conservative thinkers argue, nor a crisis forged and sustained purely by Western imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and the other nefarious isms of the left-wing lexicon.
It is something stranger and more interesting: An imbibing into Islamic form and language of European romantic ideas about nation, history and revolution that went so deep as to almost replace (Hussein speaks of a kind of forgetting) the traditional Islamic sense of what Islamic and Arab culture once were.
In this longer-than-usual episode, we take a deep dive into Hussein's thesis, and then we try to apply it to the Jews.
This episode was co-sponsored by Tovit and Mike on behalf of their son Rafi and his unit, Battalion 202 of the Paratroopers and all of our brave IDF soldiers protecting our country and fighting our enemies.
“This episode was also co-sponsored by the family of Larry from Encino, California in in honor of his birthday. They asked to dedicate the episode to the IDF’s reservist pilots, who 10 -- even 20 -- years out of active service, with families and full-time jobs, continue to serve with incredible selflessness. Their achievements during the Iran war were nothing short of heroic.
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.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
The clashes in Sweida in southern Syria this week focused world attention on the plight of the Druze and questions about the nature of the new Syrian government. Videos and claims of atrocities drove hundreds of Golan Druze to rush into Syria to the rescue of their brethren. Israeli strikes in Damascus against Syrian forces raised the stakes and led to questions, including in Israel itself, about how Israel can protect the Druze while not sacrificing an expansion of the Abraham Accords.
Rania Fadel Dean comes from a prominent Israeli Druze family. Her organization, Covenant, seeks to teach Americans about the Druze community. She joins us to share an Israeli Druze perspective, including what she's hearing from friends and family members in Sweida.
This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, strong supporters of Israel who recognize Israel's centrality and vitality to the Jewish world. They asked to dedicate this episode to lone soldiers serving in the IDF.
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.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
As hostage talks seem stalled and the war grinds on into its 22nd month, doubts about Netanyahu’s strategy and intentions have become ubiquitous.
Netanyahu has given many reasons to distrust him, including his simple refusal to explain the strategy for removing Hamas and Israel’s vision for a post-Hamas Gaza.
But it isn’t enough to criticize Netanyahu’s strategy or even to argue he doesn’t have one. To offer an effective critique, critics need to suggest a better strategy for removing Hamas and securing a better future for Gaza.
So far, criticism of Netanyahu has either avoided this step or suggested that Hamas cannot, in fact, be disentangled from Gaza, that Gaza’s future is inevitably a Hamas future.
In this episode, we dive into these questions. We ask what it would mean for both Israelis and Palestinians if Hamas is, as the critics claim, unremovable.
This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, strong supporters of Israel who recognize Israel’s centrality and vitality to the Jewish world. They asked us to say that they are proud to sponsor this episode of “Ask Haviv Anything” because this podcast makes understanding the Middle East a bit easier. They have dedicated this episode to the courageous and incredibly imaginative women and men of the Mossad, who make television look boring and simplistic in comparison to their daring exploits behind enemy lines.
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.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
There are many ways to process and manage painful and difficult times. After the massacre of October 7 and the multi-front war that ensued, many Israelis turned to music, and often to the powerful ballads and melodies of singer-songwriter duo (and married couple) Aya Korem and Adam Ben Amitai.
Aya and Adam join us in a special song-laden episode to take a look back at 21 months of pain, resilience, solidarity and, in the end, also hope.
This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, who believe in Israel's centrality and importance for the Jewish world.
They chose to dedicate this episode to Edut710en.org, a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative established in the wake of October 7 to listen to, document, preserve, share and amplify the voices of survivors, first responders, and entire communities who experienced Hamas’s brutal attack firsthand. Over 1,600 testimonies have already been recorded to this date—many of them accessible at www.edut710.org.
We hope you like our new musical intro, written just for us by the incomparable Adam Ben Amitai.
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 Iranian regime has long claimed to be the bearers of Shia Islam's vision of messianic redemption. The Supreme Leader, who ruled under regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini's ideology of "wilayat al-faqih," or Guardianship of the Jurist, created a new model of a revolutionary conquering Shiism that was previously unknown in Shia Islam, at least in its Arab version.
We are joined in this episode by Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a Shia Muslim writer and analyst in Washington DC and research fellow at FDD. Hussain grew up in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War and in Lebanon toward the end of the country's devastating civil war.
Arab Shiism, Hussain argues, is not what the Iranian regime has tried to make of it, and once freed of the financial, political and often violent influence of Khomeinist "revolutionary" ideology, will revert to its traditionally peaceful ways.
This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, strong supporters of Israel who recognize Israels' centrality and vitality to the Jewish world. They chose to dedicate this episode to the memory of Igal and Amit Wachs, 53 & 48, American-Israeli brothers who died on October 7, 2023, defending their home of Netiv Ha'asara in the Gaza envelope.
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
A bombshell Haaretz report last Friday concluded that IDF soldiers were responsible for a great many of the deaths of Gazan civilians outside aid distribution centers in Gaza.
What should we make of the report? How reliable is it? And what does it tell us about the army's handling of Gaza and the progress of the war?
This episode was sponsored by an anonymous donor in memory of the seven IDF soldiers who were killed on June 24, 2025, during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip. Their names were: Lt. Matan Shai Yashinovski, Staff Sgt. Ronel Ben-Moshe, Sgt. Ronen Shapiro, Sgt. Maayan Baruch Pearlstein, Staff Sgt. Niv Radia, Sgt. Shahar Manoav, and Staff Sgt. Alon Davidov. May their 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
(Update: audio issues corrected)
Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel. I was an ally and vital trading partner for decades -- until the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the Islamist AKP party, who began pursuing a "neo-Ottomanist" foreign policy of Turkish influence and expansionism in the region, and specifically identified Israel as a long-term ideological enemy.
Turkey is now forging alliances on all Israel's borders and looking to found an Islamic defense alliance a la NATO. Earlier this year, Turkish lawmakers formally declared Israel the country's top national security threat.
As Iran's influence retreats in the wake of the war, Erdogan has already energetically stepped into the breach, calling for Israel to be dismantled and trying to position himself as leader of the Muslim political world. Unlike Iran, he may well have the military and geopolitical clout in the region to get it done.
Are the two countries on a trajectory for a clash in, say, 20 years' time? Or can these two Middle Eastern powers find a modus vivendi that prevents more conflict in the region?
We posed this question to Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a scholar at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University who grew up in Turkey's Jewish community and is today one of Israel's top Turkey analysts.
This episode was sponsored by an anonymous sponsor and dedicated to Aviv Atzili, 49, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 was while fighting alongside the kibbutz’s emergency response team. His wife, Liat, was kidnapped that day, but was released as part of the first truce in November 2023.
Aviv's body was located and returned to Israel for burial in a joint IDF-Shin Bet operation in Gaza two days before the start of the Israel-Iran war together with the body of Yaakov Yagil, also from Nir Oz. We remember them.
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
There's now a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Who won the war? And what happens now?
We offer some preliminary conclusions as the dust settles.
This episode is sponsored by the Peters family, Tom, Shevi, Daniel, Ethan, Arielle, Yoni and David, in honor of BeLev Echad, an organization devoted to helping wounded Israeli veterans recover physically, medically and emotionally. To learn about how you too can help Israeli veterans recover, visit Belevechad.nyc.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur
The United States has struck the Iranian nuclear program, marking a watershed moment for the region.
It will take days to determine the scale of the damage and many years to understand the implications of President Trump’s decision. But a few things are already clear. A new relationship was established between the US and its ally Israel that defined a new security architecture for the American-led alliance worldwide. Israel did the heavy lifting, suffered the blowback, and only because it was willing to fight successfully itself was then able to call on America’s unique capabilities. Taiwan, take note. Russia’s European neighbors, ditto. Be ready and able to fight, and America will help. But America will no longer fight for you as in the past.
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Willy Field by his family. Willy Field was born Willy Hirschfeld in Bonn, Germany and is perhaps the only survivor of a Nazi death camp who managed to survive, escape and return to German soil in a British tank. His story of disaster, recovery and frontline heroism against Nazi Germany is a testament to over a million brave Jewish soldiers who fought the Nazis in the Allied armies.
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
Haredi Israelis make up some 13% of the population but have extremely low rates of workforce participation and military service. The growing welfare subsidies that sustain their communities have increasingly become a source of tensions and frustration for other Israelis, and the multi-front war that began on October 7 has now made their exemptions from military service a major political issue. Israel needs more workers, less welfare spending and many more soldiers to thrive in the future. Can the Haredi community change? What happens if it doesn't?
We spoke with Shmuel Rosner, senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and veteran journalist and analyst. Rosner has studied the Haredi community and the policy debates on these questions. He's the editor and publisher of the political website The Madad, themadad.com, which we recommend for, among other things, its aggregation of polling and political writing from across the spectrum of Israeli media.
This episode was sponsored by Julie and Frank Cohen because they believe this podcast is a way to teach our story, and because understanding our past and present is key to building a better future.
Julie and Frank have asked to dedicate this episode to someone we lost on October 7.
Today we remember Yochai Azulay, 28, from Holon, was murdered while trying to flee the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival on October 7. Born in Tel Aviv, Yohai grew up in a traditionally religious family and spent much of his time devoted to exploring his roots and his connection to Judaism. He served in the Kfir Brigade during his mandatory military service, and after his release, he toured around South America. After his return, Yohai soon met his girlfriend, Noa, and the pair were planning a future together.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Twenty-four people have been killed in Israel since the outbreak of the direct Israel-Iran war. The Air Force is busy hunting launchers inside Iran to constrain Iran's ability to fire missiles at Israeli cities. Parts of Tehran are being evacuated as Israel continues to hunt down the IRGC leadership and demolish the country's nuclear program.
But enormous questions remain unanswered. Can Israel actually destroy the nuclear program all by itself? If it can't, and America doesn't join the airstrikes, then what's the goal? Could Israel be hoping to achieve regime change?
We raise these questions and others, and then pay a short visit to the 1979 revolution that felled the oppressive Shah in a vast uprising by nearly all parts of Iranian society - and was then taken over and subverted by Khomeini into the theocracy we're still dealing with today. What does that historical perspective tell us about the Iranian regime's staying power?
This episode is sponsored by an anonymous donor who dedicated it to the incredible female lone soldiers of the IDF hailing from Silver Spring, Maryland.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
The astonishing Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program was the inevitable result of October 7, a day that convinced Israelis they do not actually understand their Islamist foes, cannot deter these foes and therefore cannot allow them to develop the capacity to destroy the Jewish state, no matter the cost.
Israel woke up on October 7. Its enemies had been telling it they plan to destroy it for generations; on October 8 it finally started to listen. And the Middle East will never be the same.
This episode was sponsored by Brenda Yablon in honor of the brave men and women of the IDF, without whose courage and selflessness Israel would not exist.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
The Trump administration has been trying to hammer out a deal to dismantle Iran's nuclear program. In the last 24 hours, the rhetoric has ratcheted up on both sides, as both Iranian and US officials have warned about impending military action.
A week ago, we recorded a conversation with Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, on the Iranian regime's strategy, its nuclear aspirations and what it would take to disrupt those aspirations diplomatically or, failing that, militarily.
Can Iran's nuclear program be stopped? Can the regime be reined in or even toppled? Do the interests of Israel and America overlap, or are there meaningful gaps that could force a divergence in policy? How do we support the Iranian people, who have repeatedly rebelled against the tyranny of the ayatollahs in Tehran?
Mark joined Rachel and Haviv to tackle these questions in a conversation that has only grown more relevant as the days have passed.
This episode was sponsored by Julie and Frank Cohen because they believe this podcast is a way to teach our story, and because understanding our past and present is key to building a better future.
Julie and Frank have asked to dedicate this episode to someone we lost on October 7.
Today we remember 1st Sgt. Eliran Abergil, who was 29 when he died fighting the Hamas terrorists who invaded Kibbutz Be'eri. On the morning of the attack, Eliran was in Tiberias in Israel's north celebrating the Simchat Torah holiday with family.
He rushed down south to join his comrades, met them on the front lines, and volunteered to be one of the first officers to enter Kibbutz Be'eri. He was killed in a firefight with Hamas gunmen. Eliran's wife discovered she was pregnant with their first child shortly after his death.
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
Last month marked the 25th anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon after an 18-year guerrilla war that presaged everything we now think of as 21st-century warfare.
I spoke to Matti Friedman, veteran of Lebanon and bestselling author of a memoir from that long war, Pumpkinflowers, about the history, the lessons drawn from it and how we're seeing the continuing effects of that conflict in Gaza today. 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 Carmel Gat, an occupational therapist who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Beeri while visiting family. During the first weeks of captivity, she was held with orphaned children who had also been kidnapped. The children reported that she cared for them and taught them yoga. Carmel was murdered by her Hamas captors in August 2024 along with five other hostages.
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
