On Israel with Ben Caspit, an Al-Monitor podcast

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Knesset member for the Likud party Nir Barkat. The legislator just came back from a tour in the United States, where he campaigned against the Iranian nuclear program. Barkat argues that the Iranians do not hide their desire to annihilate Israel, and thus the international community should not try to conclude any deal with them. "You don’t make a deal with someone who wants to take you out ...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Attila Somfalvi, chief anchor at the Israeli Ynet news site and tv channel. Israel is preparing now for its fifth round of elections in less than four years. Somfalvi, a senior political analyst, says Israeli politics and society have deeply changed in the last few years. In the past, the political battle centered on the Palestinian issue, with the Peace Now camp on one side and those advoc...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Amir Tibon, who serves as deputy editor for Haaretz’ English edition. Tibon, an expert on Israel-US relations, believes that a nuclear deal with Iran is bound to be eventually reached, as it is in the interest of all the world powers involved in the negotiations. Tibon recalls that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried in 2015 to stop the agreement but failed. "Prime Minister [Yair...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with veteran geologist Yossi Langostsky, considered the founding father of natural gas discoveries off the Israeli coast. Langotsky recounts that the first discovery took place in 1999, when he himself asked for an exploration-drilling permit for gas and oil, deep into Israel’s economic waters. Ten years later, actual drilling started, in an area Langotsky labeled the Tamar field, afte...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Maj. Keren Hajioff, the international spokesperson of Prime Minister Yair Lapid. Haijaoff has been managing relations with foreign media during the recent IDF operation in Gaza. Alongside the exchange of fire on the ground, Israel and Islamic Jihad also fought each other in the media arena. Hajioff explains that winning media battles requires more than the truth. "The difficult part is to m...

Ben Caspit speaks this week to Arkady Mil-man, the head of the Russia program at the Israel National Institute for Security Studies and previously Israel's ambassador to Russia and Azerbaijan. Over the past three weeks, tensions have increased between Moscow and Jerusalem. The reason for the diplomatic crisis is the decision by Russian authorities to stop the activities of the Jewish Agency, tasked with assisting Jews who ...

Ben Caspit hosts this week Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, the managing director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Hayman previously held a number of senior positions within the IDF, including chief of Military Intelligence. Referring to President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel, Hayman notes that the American leader clearly demonstrated his warm feelings and deep commitment ...

Ben Caspit hosts this week Nadav Tamir, the executive director of J Street Israel. Commenting on US President Joe Biden's visit to the region last week, Tamir welcomed Washington's renewed interest in the Middle East. "I believe the current engagement of Biden with the Saudis is good for Israel. It is good not only from the perspective of those focused on normalization or a united front against Iran, but also on the Palest...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Ambassador Mark Regev. Having served under several governments, Regev says that US President Joe Biden's upcoming visit to Israel will politically serve both the American and the Israeli leaders. "Lapid obviously wants to be seen as a world statesman. Meeting French President Macron last week, and President Biden this week, could fix things visually for [Lapid], making him seen for the firs...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with the former head of the Israel Mossad's Intelligence division, Haim Tomer. Contrary to the IDF, the Mossad holds the view that Israel should not commit to stopping its activities against Iran. Tomer explains that according to the Mossad’s estimate, clandestine warfare against Iran could actually accelerate Tehran’s receptiveness to an agreement. "The pressure inflicted on Iran makes Ira...

Ben Caspit talks this week with Gil Messing, the Chief of Staff and Head of Global Corporate Communications at the Israeli software technologies company Check Point. Messing recounts how his company recently stopped a sophisticated fishing campaign by Iranian hackers, which targeted senior Israeli political and security figures. “We constantly need to be under the assumption that such campaigns, such hacking...

Ben Caspit talks this week with Dr. Shivi Greenfield, Deputy Director General at The Jewish Agency and author of the recently-published Hebrew-language book “Judaism and Liberalism.” Addressing the cleavage in Israel between secular and religious, Orthodox and Liberals, extremists and moderate, Greenfield argues that “the Orthodox assume as granted that the Judaism as they understand it today is the authentic one, fro...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Hagit Ofran, co-director of the Settlement Watch Project at the anti-occupation NGO Peace Now. Police recently detained three Peace Now activists who allegedly intended to reach the West Bank outpost of Homesh with a bulldozer in order to demolish the illegal yeshiva operating there. Police also prevented dozens of the Peace Now activists and Meretz Knesset members from demonstrating there....

Ben Caspit hosts this week on his podcast Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll. The coalition Roll is part of is fragile, with only 60 parliamentarians supporting it at the Knesset, compared with 60 parliamentarians for the opposition. Still, the deputy minister strongly believes in the precedent set by the Bennett-Lapid government — that of true partnership with an Arab party. For him, the success of this alliance i...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Yarden Vatikay, the former director of the national information directorate in the prime minister’s office. The senior strategic adviser speaks about the killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh and the ensuing media storm Israel found itself in the midst of, noting that "being in the middle of a storm over international public opinion is not new for Israel. It is somewhat...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov caused a diplomatic incident with Israel, Ukraine and the Jewish world last week when he claimed that Hitler had Jewish roots. For Dayan, the conspiracy theory advanced by Lavrov was antisemitic by any account. The Yad Vashem head expresses his satisfaction over the reported apology m...

Ben Caspit speaks this week to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. He notes that his mother survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, while Gantz's father fought in Israel’s 1948 Independence War. Gantz, who himself has lost many friends and comrades in the battlefield, says, "We have the privilege, the duty and the honor to continue their legacy, to guarantee Israel’s security." Speaking about the biggest threat to...

Ben Caspit hosts this week Brig. Gen. (res) Nadav Zafrir, the former commander of the elite IDF 8200 intelligence unit and currently the founder and managing partner of the cyber company Team8. Israel has suffered three terror attacks within the span of only three weeks. Zafrir notes that while these attacks were obviously terrible and tragic, numerous other attacks have been foiled recently via very sophisticate...

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Boaz Ganor, the executive director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism and the Ronald S. Lauder Chair for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. Israel has suffered in the past ten days three terror attacks of different types and by different kinds of perpetrators, explains Ganor. He notes that the method to thwart any more attacks should be the same...