Ask Haviv Anything

• Episode 40: You still need real life spies to win wars, with Yossi Cohen

  Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen joins the podcast to talk about the war with Iran (spoiler: It isn’t over), the ayatollahs' regime (which won’t be easily felled), and his assurance that there are still strategic surprises in Mossad’s quiver.We discuss the stubborn Israeli insistence to continue investing heavily in HUMINT, or human intelligence - spies - in an age when other major agencies have turned away from classic spycraft to cyber, signals intelligence and AI.And we discuss how Gaza could be rebuilt and rehabilitated, who’s responsible for the failures of October 7, why Yossi has called for new elections and Yossi’s own political aspirations.This episode was sponsored by Jason and Lauriel Klinghoffer in honor of the memory of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two Israeli embassy staffers who were murdered in Washington, DC on May 21, 2025. They were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum after attending an event for young diplomats. Yaron and Sarah were planning to get engaged. May their memory be a blessing.Please join us on Patreon to support this project: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠.If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

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• Episode 39: Fear and loathing in the diaspora, live in Oslo with Bjørn Gabrielsen.

  During an August speaking tour in Norway, Haviv was interviewed at an event hosted by the remarkable Jewish organization Kos & Kaos - The Nordic Jewish Network. It's a unique group founded in 2016 that brings together Jewish voices and friends and allies of the Jewish community across Scandinavia for dialogue, cultural events and critical conversations.Norwegian writer and journalist Bjørn Gabrielsen interviewed Haviv in front of a packed house in Oslo on August 21 about the war in Gaza, the condition of diaspora Jews in the wake of October 7, the state of modern journalism, how the Middle East is seen in the West, and more.This episode was sponsored by the children of Naomi Pinchuk of Chicago in honor of her 78th birthday on August 30th. Happy birthday, Naomi! Till 120.Please join us on Patreon to support this project: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠.If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

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• Episode 38: What will it take to defeat Hamas? With Prof. John Spencer

  Twenty-three months after the October 7 attack, Hamas is massively degraded in Gaza. At a terrible cost to Gaza itself, and after losing hundreds of IDF soldiers on the battlefield, Israel has managed to shatter its battalions and kill nearly all its pre-war command hierarchy.Yet, as with all guerrilla groups, the bar for Hamas to remain a strategic actor is very low. It can still disrupt aid distribution at a large scale, still launch guerrilla attacks out of tunnels, still even launch the occasional rocket at Israeli towns. Hamas also continues to refuse any demand, including from the Arab League, to disarm and surrender its claim to power in the post-war Gaza Strip.On the cusp of what is shaping up as Israel's most significant military offensive to date against the terror group, the incursion into Gaza City - the largest pre-war city in the Strip - we turn to Prof. John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, to ask if this long-delayed denial of Hamas's last major bastion and sanctuary in Gaza might finally bring this painful war to an end.This episode was sponsored by Gideon and Lance Drucker and their firm Drucker Wealth, a financial planning and wealth management firm. They asked to use this dedication to introduce our audience to an organisation called The Legion, a non-profit to help Jewish Americans learn how to defend their families and their communities. You can learn more at their website: https://www.legionalpha.com/The Druckers would also like to dedicate this episode to Gideon's former officer in the IDF, Maj. Ariel Ben Moshe, 27, a commander in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, who was killed in the battle against Hamas infiltrators at Kibbutz Re’im on October 7, 2023. Ariel’s brother Shavit, an IDF paratrooper, also fought in the south that day and heard of his brother’s death while engaged in intense fighting in Kibbutz Holit, where he was wounded. Ariel is survived by his mother Galit, younger brothers Shavit and Adar, and his wife Yuval.Please join us on Patreon to support this project: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠.If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

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• Episode 37: The genocidal claim of genocide with Adam Louis-Klein

  Many of our Patreon subscribers have asked us to address the campaign against Israel that accuses it of genocide, colonialism and so on. This episode is the beginning of our deep dive into examining these questions.What do anti-Zionists argue? What do they want? When is it antisemitic and when legitimate? And how do we know?We posed these questions and more to anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein, a compelling commentator on academic and elite anti-Israel narratives and ideas. The resulting conversation is a fascinating and helpful dive into these ideas and the problems they pose for Jews in the modern age.This episode is sponsored by the Frozen Chosen, Haviv’s supportive community in Minnesota, to honor Noi Maudi, 29, a US-Israeli dual citizen from the southern Israeli town of Yated who taught in the community for 5 years and was a beloved teacher and friend. Noi was murdered on October 7 along with other members of his family, including his nephew and brother-in-law, at a music festival near Kibbutz Nirim.He was an impactful and beloved Hebrew teacher at the Talmud Torah of St Paul Minnesota from 2015 to 2021.Please join us on Patreon to support this project: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠.If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

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• Episode 36: How marginalized Mizrahim became Israel's first spies

  Long before the operational successes of the Mossad would become the stuff of legend in the espionage world, before the Twelve Day War, before Eli Cohen, before the Mossad itself had even come into being, a small ragtag band of courageous young Jews, without training or equipment, built the country’s first espionage arm to help the nascent Jewish state defend itself against its enemies.Journalist and author Matti Friedman returns to the podcast to talk about his book, Spies of No Country, about the Mizrahi Jewish young men who became the Jewish state’s first spies in the Arab world. Their heroic, tragic, sometimes funny stories help us fill in the longstanding lacunae in the larger story of Israel’s founding and of present-day Israeli society by paying closer attention to the enormous role and influence played by Arab-world Jews in forging today’s Israel.This episode was sponsored by the Lichterman Family of Jupiter, Florida, and dedicated to the memory and bravery of Aner Shapira, 22 from Jerusalem, who was slain in the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival on October 7. Aner attended the rave next to the Gaza border with a group of friends from Jerusalem, including his close childhood friend, Hersh Goldberg-Polin. When the rocket fire began, they left by car and stopped on the side of the road to seek safety in a roadside bomb shelter next to Kibbutz Re’im. Aner and his friends were among the last people to squeeze inside the shelter, where they soon realized that terrorists were gathering outside to attack. Aner positioned himself at the entrance to the shelter, where he caught and threw back seven grenades before the eighth exploded and killed him. Of the 27 people inside the shelter, only seven emerged alive. Those who survived did so because of Aner’s bravery.Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠.If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

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