No one in Israel will ever forget where they were at 6:29 A.M. on Saturday October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel. For Haaretz journalists, it was a day that the personal and professional collided, whether they were trying to survive the assault on their own home, reporting from the south under a hail of bullets, editing news about massacres at thei…

In retrospect, Israel should not have endured a year of Hezbollah missile attacks that decimated its northern region before fighting back, Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies said on the Haaretz Podcast, but waiting appeared to be the best strategy following the Hamas attacks of October 7. After that tra…

The U.S. has strongly cautioned Israel against targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities and oil fields in a possible retaliatory strike for the 181 ballistic missiles Tehran launched last week. On the Haaretz Podcast, strategic and intelligence expert and Haaretz columnist Yossi Melman argues that such targets should be “off limits and out of bounds,” a…

Hannah Wacholder Katsman knew that facing the anniversary of her son's death on October 7 would be difficult, but grieving in wartime Israel has been a challenge over the whole year, ever since her son was killed by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Holit, she said on the Haaretz Podcast. Hayim Katsman, an American-Israeli who would have turned 33 on Oct…

Amir Tibon will never forget what it felt like to be hunkered down in his safe room with his wife and two young daughters for hours on end, listening to the sound of Hamas terrorists on a murderous rampage in his neighborhood, Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the Gaza border, on October 7. "You're on automatic pilot. You're hearing gunfire inside your house," h…

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoys a popularity comeback as a result of Israel's military operation against Hezbollah and the assassination of the group's chief Hassan Nasrallah, he is likely to be tempted to call early elections, Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn said on the Haaretz Podcast. "It's a tried and true Netanyahu trick when he …

Despite the recent dramatic escalation in its conflict with Israel, Hezbollah appears to be - for now - refraining from launching a large-scale missile attack into the Tel Aviv area, says Amos Harel, Haaretz senior military and defense analyst on the Haaretz Podcast. Harel outlined the dramatic week-long chain of events that began with the stunning…

The presidential campaigns of both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are focusing substantial energy on Jewish voters who are closely watching Israel and Gaza, as well as rising antisemitism in the United States. Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels joined Haaretz Podcast for a special episode devoted to answering questions from Haaretz subscr…

In the relentless swirl of war and politics over the past year, the inhabitants of Gaza have often been treated more as pawns than as human beings by political and military leaders, activists, media and even those who claim to be their advocates and allies. "People outside of Gaza sometimes forget that their lives are actual lives," Haaretz corresp…

If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "ever had a moral compass, he lost it long ago," said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Israeli hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen on the Haaretz Podcast. The six hostages brutally murdered by Hamas after surviving eleven months of captivity "should not have been allowed to die" by their country's leadership, he adde…

Democrats or Republicans who believe that a Kamala Harris presidency will shift her party's Israel policy to a place favorable to its pro-Palestinian progressive wing found little evidence to back their theory at last week's Democratic National Convention, Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels told the Haaretz Podcast this week. From the war…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been enjoying a "dramatic but quite consistent recovery" in the polls in past months, after the failures of October 7 sent his popularity plummeting to unprecedented lows, according to public opinion expert and Haaretz columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin. On this week's Haaretz Podcast, Scheindlin analyzes what may…

Renewed US efforts to reach a hostage deal represent "a last ditch attempt" by the Biden White House for a diplomatic win that could stave off a major Middle East conflagration ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Amos Harel, Haaretz senior military and security analyst said on the Haaretz Podcast, ahead of American-led negotiati…

Over the course of two days last week, two major assassinations shook the Middle East. The first was of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, for which the Israeli military took credit, in Beirut. The second was a much more daring operation – the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, right under the nose of Iran's Revolutionary Guard C…

It was a scene of "complete chaos" in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights following the devastating Hezbollah strike that killed 12 Druze children playing soccer on Saturday, Haaretz correspondent Sheren Falah Saab, who was at the scene just an hour after the attack, recounted emotionally on Haaretz Podcast. "There were ambulances everywh…

It's a time of goodbyes: As Joe Biden says goodbye to the U.S. presidency, Netanyahu said goodbye to Israel while the Gaza war is raging, while hostages are both suffering and dying, so that he could speak to the U.S. Congress and hold a few high-level meetings. It may not have been ideal timing, but Netanyahu got what he wanted: too many standing …

President Joe Biden's stunning decision to step aside and forgo a second term, throwing his support behind the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris is unlikely to dramatically change U.S. policy towards Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, according to former diplomat and senior Haaretz columnist Alon Pinkas, who reacted to the bombshell news…