Haaretz Podcast

For B'Tselem executive director Yuli Novak, the firestorm around the New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof decrying sexual violence by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israeli prisons has had the wrong focus.
Speaking on the Haaretz Podcast, Novak said the Israeli government’s "propaganda machine" and other critics focused on challenging the facts regarding the abuse described in the piece, which she says are backed up by "dozens of testimonies" collected by her organization.
"I would say it's much less a question whether these things [sexual abuse of Palestinians] are happening or not happening, and much more about what it means for all of us, and first and foremost for the victims."
In its report on prisons, based on testimonies from Palestinians detained and then released from 16 detention facilities after October 7, B’Tselem documented "ongoing torture, physical and mental" abuse and the use of starvation and denial of medical treatment "as a policy."
B’Tselem’s conclusion: that these facilities represented "a network of torture camps," which Novak admitted "was hard to grasp as an Israeli. For me – torture camps have been something that happens somewhere else."
October 7 had been an opportunity and a “catalyst” for right-wing extremists in the government to influence policies in the direction of “their nationalist, racist, and in the case of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the prison system – I would even say their sadistic agenda,” Novak said.
“We can keep telling ourselves that we're a democracy, but if Israel, holding almost half of its population under its control without the right to go and vote for the system that governs them, it's not a democracy.”
Read more:
B'Tselem Report: Testimonies Describe 'Pattern of Sexual Violence' Against Palestinian Prisoners
UN Secretary-General Report Accuses Israeli Forces of Rape, Sexual Abuse of Palestinian Detainees
Ben-Gvir Is Not Alone: These Are His Collaborators in the Illegal Treatment of Palestinian Prisoners
Op-ed by Yuli Novak: Even if You Call Israel a Democracy, It Is Still Apartheid
Israel Must Let Red Cross Visit Palestinian Security Prisoners, High Court Rules
Read B'Tselem's full report on Israeli prisons as a network of torture camps
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The Gulf countries are spending “enormous amounts of money to try to mask the economic consequences of the Iran war from their population,” Gregg Carlstrom, The Economist’s Middle East correspondent, said on the Haaretz Podcast.
Carlstrom, speaking from Dubai, explained that with the Strait of Hormuz blocked by Iran, Gulf states are flying in consumer goods, food and medicine normally imported by ship “at a huge expense” so their citizens don’t experience shortages or empty shelves in stores.
However, he warned, by the end of the summer, if the security situation remains precarious and the Strait remains blocked – and especially if active warfare with Iran is renewed – the economic toll will be impossible to avoid, and these countries will worry about their many expat residents packing up and leaving.
In a conversation with Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Carlstrom described a “roller coaster” of changing attitudes in the Gulf States regarding the ongoing U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict.
Initially, in March, he said, when the fighting was at its peak, leaders of most of the Gulf countries were “quietly urging the Trump administration to keep fighting until the Iranian regime was overthrown or severely weakened.” By now, he said, the U.S. president “really has lost the support he had in the Gulf,” as leaders unanimously tell Trump that “this needs to end.”
The same leaders, he said, are harboring “anger at Israel” for what they see as its “major role in pushing America into this war.” As a result, he said, he is skeptical of an expansion of the Abraham Accords, as promised by Trump, in the near future.
On the podcast, Carlstrom also discusses the expanding confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the failed negotiations to end it due to what he sees as the “poor job” Lebanon is doing managing its relationship with the United States.
Read more:
Israeli Plans for Beirut Strike Place Strain on U.S.-Iran Diplomacy
How Israel's Adventures in Lebanon Are Giving Iran a Second Chance
Report: Satellite Images Show Iran Clearing Entrances to Missile Facilities Buried in Strikes
A 'Stupid, Futile Waste of Lives': The Empty Triumph of Israel's Latest Conquest in Lebanon
Report: UAE Carried Out Dozens of Strikes on Iran in Coordination With Israel and U.S.
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Both of Israel’s wars in Iran have been “strategic failures” and critically damaged the country’s deterrence, Danny Citrinowicz, a former top Iran expert in Israeli military intelligence, told the Haaretz Podcast.
He cited a long list of missteps and misguided assumptions that led to the failure of the solo military operation in 2025 and the joint U.S. attack in February.
“We overestimated air power and underestimated Iranian resilience,” Citrinowicz said, resulting in the “worst possible strategic reality, with a more extreme, decentralized regime in Tehran,” and heightened tensions with the U.S. – all while highlighting Israel’s dependence on the U.S. as a weakness.
While Iran once feared an attack by Israel, he noted, its leaders have now learned that they can be attacked by the two strongest air forces in the world and emerge with its regime intact, as well as “the capacity to launch missiles and drones, and theoretically has the potential to move to a nuclear bomb.”
Moreover, in a boomerang effect, he noted, wars launched to deter Iran’s nuclear program have likely intensified Tehran’s motivation to acquire nuclear capacity in order to prevent future attacks.
In his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Citrinowicz – a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies – also discussed the intensifying conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s continued belief that Saudi Arabia will soon join the Abraham Accords, which he called a hope “detached from reality.”
Read more:
Iran and U.S. Trade Air Strikes After Trump Dismisses Report of Hormuz Deal
Trump's Iran Deal: Netanyahu's 2018 Dream Is The World's 2026 Nightmare
Analysis | Israel Demands to Disarm Its Regional Enemies, but Refuses to Pay the Price
Trump: Not Sure Iran Deal Possible Unless Saudis, Qatar Join Abraham Accords
U.S. May Need Years to Rebuild Weapons Stockpiles Depleted in Iran War, Report Says
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The first major primary battle in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections resulted in a significant victory for AIPAC and other pro-Israel megadonors, but Haaretz's Washington correspondent Ben Samuels warned that their celebrations could be premature.
The defeat of Representative Thomas Massie – a rare Republican antagonist of U.S. President Donald Trump and harsh critic of Israel whom AIPAC "has wanted to take down for years" – happened after more than $30 million was spent to defeat him in what was the most expensive Congressional primary in American history. Massie was targeted by Trump and his supporters for his disloyalty to the U.S. leader.
"They may have won the battle with Thomas Massie, but it's very clear that the ideology and the agenda and the vision that Thomas Massie embodies is not going anywhere – especially with younger voters and also with voters on the progressive left flank that found themselves to be weird ideological allies with this guy," Samuels told the Haaretz Podcast.
Samuels also discussed the role that Israel and Iran are playing on the campaign trail, and the contradictory messages from the Trump White House on the drawn-out negotiations toward a potential agreement with Iran.
"So little was actually accomplished from the kinetic military campaign that the United States and Israel launched, that any sort of negotiation that Trump is trying to eventually spin as a win wouldn't actually be that much of a win," Samuels said. It would just be moving the goalposts back."
Samuels was skeptical regarding reports that Trump is blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dragging him into the Iran war – and that the U.S. is subsequently not keeping Israel in the loop regarding negotiations – as well as theories that the U.S. leader has soured on Netanyahu after singing his praises early in the war.
"If anything, Trump defies the odds and brings himself closer to Bibi. That being said, there is no doubt that Israel is effectively being sidelined in these current negotiations."
Read more:
GOP Rebel Thomas Massie Loses Kentucky Primary After Record-high Spending From pro-Israel Foes
Vocal Israel Critic Chris Rabb Wins Pennsylvania Primary, a Victory for Progressive Democrats
Analysis by Ben Samuels | Record Pro-Israel Lobby Spending May Have Achieved Its Goal in Kentucky. But at What Cost?
Texas Candidate's Antisemitic Conspiracies Trigger a National Democratic Backlash
In Unlikely Team-up, Hunter Biden and Candace Owens Trade Conspiracies on Israel and the 'Epstein Class'
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As Israel is fighting enemies on multiple fronts, it can't afford to lose any of its vital strategic assets. And according to Dr. Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis, a researcher at Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies, it is in danger of losing one of those assets: the support of American Jews.
"The loss of the special relationship between Israel and the US will force Israel to reconsider its security priorities and matter greatly to the security and foreign policy of the State of Israel," Sasson-Gordis told the Haaretz Podcast. "Within that, the Jewish community over the decades has been a major pillar of that support."
A new report co-authored by Sasson-Gordis details the data behind the deterioration of support and explains the reasons for the dramatic drop – even as the Trump White House is offering "unprecedented levels of support" for Israel. The report is intended as a wake-up call for Israeli leaders and offers a list of policy recommendations designed to stave off the deterioration.
Polls show that among the U.S. public at large, "Israel is in the red in terms of net public support in every audience except older Republicans – even traditional groups that the current government and previous Israeli governments have seen as stalwart supporters of Israel."
The Jewish community faces a "generational cliff," he said, as American Jews, particularly young Jews, are deeply influenced by the multi-front wars waged by Israel.
"If you're today a young American Jew who is not very strongly affiliated with Israel to begin with, then the experiences that you've had – either on campus or where you work or on social media – cause you to wonder whether supporting Israel is worth it for you socially and morally."
But even older members of the U.S. Jewish establishment, including institutional leaders, he said, "feel like Israel is not listening to them and is not interested in their opinions, even as they are increasingly affected by Israeli actions on the ground."
Read more:
Most U.S. Jews Do Not Identify as 'Zionists,' Even When They Support Israel, JFNA Survey Finds
Netanyahu Minister to Reform Rabbi MK Kariv: 'You're Marrying Dogs in Your Delusional Synagogues'
Analysis by Joshua Leifer: J Street Isn't Out of Touch With American Jews, but Israel's Settler Right Is
'A Critical Mass of U.S. Jews Is Now Disgusted With Israel'
Analysis by David Rosenberg: The Future of American Jewry Looks Bleak
Read the full INSS report
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