Shows / Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis
Israel from the Inside is for people who want to understand Israel with nuance, who believe that Israel is neither hopelessly flawed and illegitimate, nor beyond critique. If thoughtful analysis of Israel and its people interests you, welcome!
danielgordis.substack.com
Episodes
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisDoes Israel have a social contract? And if it does, who owes what to whom?
We focus today on Israeli social solidarity. It was during the Judicial Reform “process,” of course, that the deep divisions in Israeli society became headline…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"If Lebanon captures this area, I'll live on the other side of the border"
As the war drags on (some are beginning to call this Israel’s Second War of Attrition), sentiments about the north range from deep worry to anguish. A bit more…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisOur kids are not alright
We begin with the video above, which exploded across Israeli social media yesterday. At first people weren’t sure if it was real, or a spoof. Israel is…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"He was a sweet and wonderful man, a fabulous partner and a perfect father. That's how we'll remember him, and hope you will, too."
Like a diver gone a bit too deep and for a bit too long, now desperate to get to the surface to suck in some oxygen, Israelis reveled in the news of the rescue…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisAn international boycott of Israeli professors and universities is spreading, even in the US—but Israel is fighting back
Before we get to today’s subject, the spreading international academic boycott of Israel, a quick look at two of todays’s papers, which almost seem to be in…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisBattles with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran still rage, but Israelis also remain focused on Diaspora Jewry
Ever since the brouhaha in Congress over the three university presidents who were called to testify before Congress on December 5th, Israel news has been…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"Inclusivity, not exclusivity, is the new pathway to genuine Israeliness"
Today we mark the Memorial Day for the Israeli Ethiopian community who perished in the Ethiopian exodus to Israel in the 1980s and 90s. We do so with a…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"Kiryat Shemona was named for the eight defenders of Tel Hai, but will be known for the eight houses that remained standing"
We begin with this chalkboard image, the origins of which I don’t know, as someone sent it to me. It’s a pithy way of capturing what many Israelis feel about…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisWe're Bedouins. When someone comes into our home, we protect them. Period.
It’s been a rough few days. There was the tragic accident caused by Israeli ordnance yesterday near Rafah that claimed the lives of 35 Palestinians and…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"It's true, everyone here looks normal, but this is a kibbutz of superheroes."
In honor of the celebration of Yom Ha-Aztma’ut this year, not simple for anyone but all the more impossible if you’re from one of the devastated communities of…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisRon Arad is back in the news, because his wife has a warning for the hostages' families
Yesterday, the families of some of the female hostages who had been filmed during their capture and on the first day of their captivity, released to the public…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisTo light the torch, or to extinguish? Israeli TV carried two competing, simultaneous Independence Day ceremonies. Why?
With the recovery over the weekend of the bodies of four of our hostages, including one who was not known to have been killed, the kidnapped captives are back…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisThoughts as the week of Yom Ha-Zikaron and Yom Ha-Atzma'ut concludes, with Rabbi Dani Passow of Harvard Hillel
Not long ago, Rabbi Dani Passow, Senior Director of Public and Alumni Programs at Harvard Hillel, reached out to see if we could have a conversation at the…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisOctober 7th was "the first time that a Jewish army has stopped a pogrom"
We have, on a number of occasions, linked to videos created by a project called Toldot Yisrael. Toldot Yisrael is a Jerusalem based nonprofit dedicated to…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"What gives you hope for this country?" One answers the Holocaust, one says a baby just born
A few weeks ago, I had occasion to hear two Shalem College students, one a graduate and one still in school, in conversation with some very thoughtful American…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"Now it's our generation. Now it's our turn."
We’d been planning something different for today, sharing one of the many new songs that have appeared in recent months, celebrating our young generation and…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"They argue, while we die." Echoes of Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger in today's Israel
Even in the brief clip above, taken from a song that has appeared all over Twitter and Facebook in the past day or two (my thanks to Daniel G. for being the…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"Believe me, the army doesn't care if your son gets killed."
Almost since the war began, people have been writing me to ask, “Is it true that the army is actually not giving the soldiers the equipment they need? We hear…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisBefore the war, we'd planned a post on this new, happier side of drones.
If you’re a gadget person as I am, you might well end up decided by the end of this podcast that it’s time to remind your kids (as did I) of the date of your…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"If they're at the beach, the war is over. And if the war is over, let's admit the war is over."
On a week in which Israel was attacked by 300 missiles from Iran, it ironically seemed that the story that got most people talking was a series of images of…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisOne video, less than forty seconds long, has thrown a country back into agony.
We’re going to come back to the video above shortly. It’s less than 40 seconds, but it has reignited the agony many Israelis still feel about these past six…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"I still believe that our problems do not start and end with our external enemies"
The restaurants and cafes were full on Sunday morning. During the night, we’d been hunkered down while Iranian weaponry exploded in the air above our homes, we…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"If everyone knows the historical record is safe, might that create space in our collective consciousness to start thinking about how we rebuild?"
By now, everyone has heard the obviously correct comment that the atrocities of October 7th were the most documented pogrom in Jewish history. But who is…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisSword of Iron - Israel Volunteer Opportunities: Two women, an American and an Israeli, join forces in a unique way
I’ve lost track of how many people have written me over the past few months to ask about volunteering opportunities. There are dozens of Israeli websites and…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"The image of Israel as the 'villa in the jungle' has died. Our future depends on collaborations and creative leadership."
Given the damage to Israel’s economy that was widely predicted during the judicial overhaul crisis and the ongoing war, the strength of the shekel is…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisThe "Bring Them Home" protests heat up, but there's another group that's not coming home
I was going through security at Ben-Gurion airport on Saturday night, on my way to meeting with some people working on a mechanism to try to save Israeli…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisPerfect enemies come in all forms—some terrifying, others entertaining in the best sense of the word.
If the video below by the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his vision for the world, doesn’t send chills down your spine, well … you’re in better shape…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisStriking in its beauty, the Dead Sea is actually drying up and disappearing
Israel from the Inside was always meant not to focus on war or politics, but instead, fo focus on the issues, challenges, people, culture, music and more that…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"This is the moment of truth for Israeli society," says Yair Lapid about the Haredi draft. Is Israel about to change a long-immoral policy?
Almost since the war began, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s polling numbers dropped and exasperation with the present government increased, one question has hovered…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisIs this 1948 all over again? Comparisons are often made, which is why some say this should be called "The Second War of Independence"
Last Sunday, on Feb 25th, we posted a column about those in Israel who are urging that Israel “help” Gazans leave Gaza. Depending on what they mean by “help,”…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"Tomorrow it will be over"—a song that captures Israel's mood, and long history of loss, perfectly.
The news is a slog. There are better days and worse days, and so it is likely to be for a very, very long time. Some of the (fairly knowledgeable) pundits are…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisI was wrong when I said that the police would never water-cannon the families of hostages
One doesn’t need to be a genius to imagine what we speak about in these parts, at the Shabbat table, over dinner with friends, drinks with other friends. It’s…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisGadi Eisenkot, former Chief of Staff, who lost a son and a nephew in this war, is perhaps the main reason Israelis have faith in the war cabinet.
“Rachel from Ofakim,” she was called. The woman who, while she was held hostage, baked cookies for the terrorists holding her and her husband hostage. She got…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"Our children learned in school that we have a country so that there won't be another Holocaust, and they died in a Holocaust."
We begin today with an interactive map that has been around for a while, though the data is constantly updates as more information becomes available. It’s a…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"If you stay silent now, you and your father's house will disappear." What Mordechai said to Esther is just as true today....
We’ll get to our conversation with Michal Cotler-Wunsh just below. First, though, the “green wedding dress” we mentioned last week, and then a quick summary of…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisIsraeli comedy strikes hard at the Haredim and their refusal to be drafted, but ironically, it's the IDF that got angry
More than a decade ago, my office at work was situated next door to the office of a former IDF Chief of Staff, who was then working with us. The way my desk…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"It's an important lesson for them, that their principal was sent to go to war"—and the first woman to operate a D-9
We saw earlier in the week a portion of Ari Shavit’s column over the weekend, when he described the disappointment some people in Gaza are finding on the home…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"It doesn't smell of death anymore, so the birds have started to return."
Today, we focus on the video above, which tragically needs little commentary. First, though, the schedule for the remainder of the week, followed by a few…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"It feels like they've returned from a different planet"
In today’s podcast, which we’re making available in full to all, we address the question of whether Israel as a society writ-large is going to find itself in…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisTwo Israeli plans to end the war by this spring now emerging
We begin today, and wrap up the week, with the above very brief clip which was part of a larger story we’re not covering now. It’s an IDF-released video (you…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisA tale of two friends, estranged during the judicial reform protests, now reunited and determined to make Israel better
The only way to describe Israel this morning is to conjure up one of those scenes from a movie in which someone finally extricates themselves from something…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisWhat happens on the "day after"? There's rage at Bibi, but there's also nuanced thinking about our choices
These three pieces (including the video above) all represent different points of view about how to address the critical moment in which Israel finds itself. We…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisShe was healthy and full of life when she was kidnapped, and this is what they did to her ...
Here’s a quick headline from Haaretz, last night. It reads: Israelis who were supposed to be able to die at a ripe old age in their own beds are rotting away…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisTurns out that there IS life after death ... at least for tanks ...
For a while now, Israelis have been reading and hearing about a strange, new tank unit called the Phoenix unit. Like the bird for which it is named (in Hebrew…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisThe Soul of Israel: Lost in Translation
Before we to get the video above: Below, after the video, a post by a soldier who mentioned to a bus driver that she was hungry after days of fighting … and…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"I was among those people who made the country weak, who hurt people."
Most political analysts in Israel believe that the Netanyahu era is nearing its end (I’m much less certain than most). As soon as the war is over, they say, or…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisWhen Natan Gross became Ma'ayan Gross—and continued to serve in her original combat unit
A quick followup to Friday’s post We’ll get to the video you see posted above in just a moment. But if you read Friday’s post about army reservists who used…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisWhen a new Israel emerges, it will be thanks to people like this.
A lot of the news these days is very sobering. We’ve covered some of that earlier this week. At the same time, Israelis are fully aware that they’re…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisThe "Noa's" of Israel band together
Another not so stellar week. Kfir Bibas is “celebrating” (an absurd word if ever there was one) his first birthday in Hamas captivity today. He’s one. He’s…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"Building a life from what remains" — Israelis begin to look beyond the war
This past Sunday , on the 14th of January, Israelis marked the horrific 100th day of the war. One hundred days of sadness and loss, one hundred days of…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"Our darkest periods have always led to periods of revival and resurgence"—from the Second Intifada to October 7th
EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious, as you probably know, is a wildly popular and deeply thoughtful podcast with Professor Russel Roberts, president of…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"When it comes to the lives of those who are fighting with you ... you know what you need to do."
Before we get to the video above and the story of Major Dvir Fima below, we are sharing this video from Rachel Goldberg Polin, in which she asks all of us to…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisThe "Black Sabbath" meets Israeli music
“Israel will never be same,” we have all been saying for months. And that is undoubtedly true. For as long as my generation is alive, Israel will be a…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis2023 was without question the worst year in Israel's history
A couple of weeks ago, we posted two podcasts in which I sought to give a brief history of Zionism and then an explanation of “How and why October 7 was a…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisExtraordinary humanity in the darkest of times
Our plan had been to post today the second half of yesterday’s presentation on Zionist history and how October 7th represented a breach of Zionism’s promise to…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisA brief history of Zionism and the promise to the Jewish people that lay at its heart (Part I of II)
A couple of weeks ago, I had occasion to deliver two remote presentations to a group of professionals in the United States who sought to understand better the…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisRage. Frustration. Tragedy. Heartbreak. Celebration.
It’s been a very, very complicated few days in Israel. A few triumphs, the horror of the three escaping hostages killed by our own forces (itself a very…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis"You live a historic life, a life of mission, a life of purpose"
By now, you’ve probably heard countless accounts of what transpired on October 7. But unless you’ve seen this clip, which is making its way around Israeli…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisAmbassador David Friedman on what happens after: "The State of Israel must maintain full sovereignty, ‘from the river to the sea.'"
Ambassador David Friedman calls it like he sees it Our main text today from this weekend’s Israeli press is a fascinating interview with Ambassador David…
Israel from the Inside with Daniel GordisThis is a nation that will be mired in PTSD for as long as any of us are alive. [WARNING-verbally graphic video above]
Even after seeing the now infamous 47-minute video that the IDF is showing to select people (journalists (one of whom tweeted this about his experience of…