Ask Haviv Anything

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything ), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/ ), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur ).

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Is Trump winning or losing the negotiations with Iran? How long can America sustain the mutual blockade in Hormuz? How long can Iran? And who will blink first?

To answer these questions, Haviv sits down with Iran analyst Rich Goldberg, former director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction at America’s National Security Council and now a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to unpack the real state of Iran's military, nuclear and economic position after months of conflict. We ask whether Iran's nuclear program has been set back decisively, whether the regime can survive the mounting economic pressure, and whether America can sustain that pressure with Hormuz closed.

And more broadly: Was this war a fundamental pivot in the effort to contain Iran, or just one more battle in the long war to check a regime that still seeks to dominate the region, export its ideology, and destroy the Jewish state?

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This week’s episode is sponsored by the Technion, Israel’s premier technological university.

Israel became the Startup Nation by turning talent into strength. Ideas into industries.

For more than a century, the Technion has trained the engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs who transformed Israel into the Startup Nation and delivered breakthroughs that changed the world.

Now Technion scientists are advancing the next wave of innovation to help power Israel’s next chapter.

Israel. Engineered by the Technion.
Join us. Visit https://ats.org/rebuild .

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything ), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/ ), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur ).

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/ ) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur ).

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Haviv sits down with philosopher, neuroscientist and podcaster Sam Harris to explore the moral and informational crisis gripping the West. Sam explains why his defense of Israel has nothing to do with identity politics and everything to do with the long-term threat of jihadism to open societies, a position he has held consistently since 9/11. We dissect the profound generational shift in attitudes toward Israel and Jews, backed by stark polling data on Holocaust denial and acceptance of political violence among young Americans.

We explore how social media shattered our shared reality, creating a “funhouse mirror” effect that radicalizes both sides while making coherent moral reasoning nearly impossible; the rise of antisemitic conspiracy thinking on the right, particularly Tucker Carlson’s evolving rhetoric and the laundering of extreme voices; and we debate tribalism, dogmatism, the limits of secularism, and whether healthy particularism can survive in open societies.

An honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversation on trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t seem to anymore.

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This week’s episode is sponsored by Leah. The episode is dedicated "to my son Noah, who told me, 'I thought your stories of antisemitism were long ago and far away, it's a bit shocking to live through what's happening now'; to all young Jewish Americans experiencing a similar awakening; and to Haviv and Rachel, who are giving them the tools to come to their own conclusions and the information needed to defend their positions. Being part of this podcast and this community has been the silver lining of a crazy period."

Thank you Leah.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything ), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/ ), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur ).

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/ ) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur ).

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Historian Gil Troy joins the podcast to trace the remarkable story of Canadian Jewry, from its post-war flourishing in Montreal and Toronto to its current crisis of rising antisemitism and violence. We confront the “Europeanization” of Canada, the polite face of rising antisemitism, and what happens when a decent society stops defending its Jewish minority.

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This week's episode is sponsored by the Feinberg family, who asked us to include this beautiful dedication: "Today we honor our mom and grandma, Sandy Danto, on her 75th birthday. Inspired by her parents, Regina and Saul Muskowitz -- Holocaust survivors from Poland -- Sandy has devoted her life to strengthening Israel and supporting the Jewish people. While rooted in the Detroit Jewish community, her impact reaches far and wide, guided by her belief that Jewish strength, learning, and unity are essential to our future. She leads with conviction, generosity, and deep care for others. We are so proud of the example she sets and the difference she continues to make. We love you and celebrate you today and always. Love, Aaron, Julie, Noa, Ari and Raya Feinberg."

Thank you to the Feinberg family for that beautiful and sweet dedication.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything ), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/ ), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur ).

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/ ) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur ).

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Was the Zionist-Arab encounter always destined to end in displacement, war and suffering? That's what the settler-colonial theorists argue, and it's a claim that's moved from the fringes of academia into mainstream discourse on college campuses, op-ed pages and protest movements worldwide. It is a claim that has become almost definitional to left-wing politics in the West.

In this episode, we sit down with Professor Alexander Yakobson of the Hebrew University, a scholar of ancient democracy, national identity, and the modern Middle East, to take these arguments apart, piece by piece, with the one thing the debate usually lacks: actual history.

What really happened when the UN voted for partition in 1947? Why did the Jewish Agency beg both the Americans and the Soviets for an international enforcement force? How close was the IDF to losing the War of Independence, and what does that tell us about Zionist "inevitability?" Is the Nakba historically unique, or does it fit a painful pattern seen from Cyprus to British India to Greece and Turkey?

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This episode is sponsored by Howard and Darlene Wolf, a Jewish couple from Tampa, Florida. They want to dedicate it to “the millions of Americans who have an unbreakable bond with the Jewish state of Israel, including the millions of evangelicals whose beliefs and reasons may differ from our own, but who nevertheless stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish state. Regardless of our motivations, whether religious or secular, may we all act on the critical need to align ourselves with America’s most trustworthy ally and the Middle East’s only democracy.”

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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Longtime Fatah activist Samer Sinijlawi spent five years in prison during the First Intifada and then rose up the Fatah ranks. He eventually came to lead Palestinian outreach to Israelis. Sinijlawi was one of the rare Palestinian activists to explicitly condemn the October 7 massacre. He even visited Israeli victims. In the wake of the Gaza war, he now calls for a new and deep dialogue with Israelis — and is convinced Palestinian society can move on from the regimes of Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas. For example, in recent local elections -- including in Gaza -- opposition and technocratic lists that Sinijlawi helped advance sidelined both radical Islamist forces and Abbas's faction within Fatah. Is a new Palestinian political reality taking shape in the wake of the Gaza war?

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This episode was sponsored by an individual who asked to remain anonymous, but asked us to share this message: Beit Issie Shapiro is Israel’s leading innovator in the field of disabilities, developing lifechanging services and solutions for children and adults with disabilities, including injured soldiers, as well as their families. Each year, they impact over half a million people in Israel and around the world through direct services, sharing knowledge, and training professionals. For more than 45 years, they’ve been creating solutions where none existed, opening doors for individuals and helping build a more inclusive society for all. You can learn more at https://beitissie.org.il/eng.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.