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This episode features the audio from a NJN webinar, originally recorded on January 15th, 2026,  hosted by Noam Shelef. In this conversation, Peace Now's Hagit Ofran helps us understand: What to make of the recent headlines about E-1 and how this fits with other changes in the West Bank over the past year. How settler violence and government policy reinforce one another to drive Palestinians out of certain areas. Why these developments matter for Palestinians, Israelis, and the rest of us who care about what the future looks like. Hagit Ofran is Israel's leading expert on settlements and the Israeli government's policies in the Occupied Territories. As co-director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch program, Hagit has spent decades documenting settlement expansion and tracking the legal and political mechanisms driving de facto annexation.

In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by Barak Sella, editor of Class of 95: A Literary Anthology on the Assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.  Class of 95 presents, for the first time in English, Israel's poetic response to this national trauma. Originally published in Hebrew as Machzor 95, this anthology gathers diverse and powerful Israeli voices, including both renowned poets and a new generation of writers who gave words to a nation's shock, grief, and search for meaning. This English edition brings forty of those poems to new audiences, organized according to the five stages of Jewish mourning. Together, they move readers from the stunned immediacy of November 4, 1995, through grief and reckoning, to the recognition that Rabin's assassination is not only a personal or national trauma but a lasting chapter in Jewish history. Learn more about Class of 95: https://www.theclassof95.com/  

In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by author, internationally renowned human rights lawyer, and longtime activist Sari Bashi to discuss the new English translation of her book Upside-Down Love, originally published in Hebrew in 2021.  Told in alternating chapters by both Sari and Osama (a pseudonym), Upside-Down Love is a moving portrait of two ordinary people falling in love and navigating the regular pitfalls of a relationship, set against an extraordinary backdrop of the West Bank. The pair met when Sari represented Osama in petitions to Israel's Supreme Court to allow him to pursue his education overseas. Their story offers a new lens on current events in Israel-Palestine—experiencing the conflict in their day to day lives, raising their children, and coping with constant threats to themselves, their families, and loved ones. Osama and Sari's star-crossed romance—an intimate, vulnerable portrait of an astoundingly resilient Israeli-Palestinian relationship—has since become a beacon of hope in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. Now on its way to becoming an international sensation, Upside-Down Love speaks to the unique circumstances of this specific moment in history, while also illustrating a timeless truth: Love will triumph over bigotry and destruction. Buy or pre-order the book (out in the US on January 20th, 2026)- https://bookshop.org/p/books/upside-down-love-sari-bashi/6b7db8d45024dc23?ean=9798228590052&next=t&    

In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by author and journalist Micah L. Sifry to discuss his new book, When Doves Try: Israel's Peace Now Movement 1978-1983. This book tells the story of how a handful of young Israeli reserve officers helped ignite the country's largest grassroots peace movement, which our listeners know as Peace Now, or Shalom Achshav.  Micah Sifry first encountered Peace Now as a college student, researched its rise while living on a kibbutz during Israel's 1982 Lebanon War, and has followed its trajectory ever since. Blending memoir, archival research, interviews with its founders, political history, and fresh reporting, When Doves Try traces how an all-volunteer movement reshaped Israeli politics—and what its struggles reveal about the possibilities and limits of democratic activism. Get the book: https://micahsifry.com/books/ Find more of Micah's writing: https://theconnector.substack.com/ Learn more about Peace Now and their ongoing work: https://peacenow.org.il/en    

In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN Director of Programs Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by comedian and podcast host Orli Matlow (host of War Is Stupid: An Antiwar Podcast About War) Read more about War Is Stupid: An Antiwar Podcast About War: https://warisstupid.substack.com/ Listen to War Is Stupid: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNvZw9ofCuL9a0SUDFOJcT_kRAEfYhZ-N  

This episode of PeaceCast, cohosted by NJN's President and CEO Hadar Susskind and NJN and T'ruah board member Rabbi Esther Lederman, is a recording of a webinar hosted on November 18th, 2025.  In the month since the Trump-brokered ceasefire went into effect, the fighting has mostly stopped and the living hostages have been returned to Israel (as have most of the deceased hostages). Yet, we've seen few signs of progress towards the next stages of President Trump's 20-point plan to end the war and rebuild Gaza. Dr. Baskin is uniquely positioned to speak on these issues. His decades of experience in back-channel negotiations and peacebuilding, including as a mediator for the deal that freed Gilad Shalit in 2011, provide him with a broad network of contacts in the Israeli security establishment and among Palestinian leaders.    

This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from October 1, 2025, hosted by Hadar Susskind.   At an unusual press conference at the White House on Monday September 29 — with Prime Minister Netanyahu at his side — President Trump unveiled a plan to end the Gaza War. The document, which was emailed to reporters during the event, included 20 substantive points—some of which are supposed to happen whether or not Hamas accepts the plan.  To help us make sense of these developments, NJN hosted two seasoned observers of American diplomacy for this webinar.  Laura Rozen is a veteran foreign policy journalist. She has served as the diplomatic correspondent for Al-Monitor, foreign policy reporter for Politico, and for Foreign Policy magazine, where she launched the Cable blog in 2009. She now writes and reports the Diplomatic newsletter at Substack, and also serves on the editorial board of Just Security. Joel Braunold is the Managing Director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, the former executive director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, and a contributing editor at Lawfare. He works regularly with the US State Department, USAID, the National Security Council, and Congress on the needs of the peace-building community. Outside the United States, he has worked with national governments across Europe, multilateral institutions, and parts of the Arab world. 

In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN Director of Prgrams Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by Tamar Cohen, the Resource Development Director at Comet-ME. Comet-ME is an Israeli-Palestinian NGO providing off-grid renewable energy, clean water, and wireless internet infrastructure to vulnerable Palestinian communities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Among other projects, Comet-ME is currently working on a grassroots emergency project to install community-run security cameras in Palestinian villages in Area C of the West Bank. Learn more about Comet-ME: https://comet-me.org/ New Jewish narrative: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/ 

Recording of a conversation between Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) and NJN President and CEO Hadar Susskind from September 3, 2025. Senator Welch recently reintroduced the SANCTIONS in the West Bank Act. This important legislation seeks to codify the Biden Administration Executive Order that imposed sanctions on those "undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank." While these sanctions did not end settler violence, their absence is keenly felt. Settler attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank have skyrocketed by 30% since the repeal of the sanctions in January. In conversation with NJN President and CEO Hadar Susskind, Senator Welch shared his perspective on why this bill matters now, how it fits into the broader struggle to hold the Israeli government accountable, and what role the US can play in advancing peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.

This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from August 25th, 2025. Experts share updates on the evolving humanitarian situation in Gaza. Featuring: Dr. Tarek Loubani, a medical doctor and founder of the Glia project, which provides medical aid and services in war-torn regions, Palestine the first among them. He is currently working at a hospital in Gaza. Dr. Lee Mordecai, an Israeli historian who is well known for his recent documentation of war crimes in Gaza, especially as they relate to starvation. Karam Al-Shanti, a native Gazan who works for the Red Cross and is currently based in Belgium. This webinar was cosponsored by New Jewish Narrative, T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Satyam, Combatants for Peace, Rabbis for Human Rights, Partners for Progressive Israel, Mizrahi Civic Collective, and Smol Emuni. Moderated by: Annie Kantar, award-winning Israeli writer, and Noam Shelef, New Jewish Narrative's Vice President for Communications.

NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined here by Aliza Schoffman Land and Sirin Smoom from Lissan. Lissan, Arabic for language or tongue, advances a vision of a bilingual Hebrew-Arabic Jerusalem by promoting linguistic justice and equal access to basic rights and services for all Jerusalem residents through Hebrew language instruction to East Jerusalemites. Learn more about Lissan's mission: https://www.lissan.org/?lang=en Lissan's current programs: https://www.lissan.org/our-work?lang=en More about New Jewish Narrative: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/  

In this episode of PeaceCast (recorded on August 1, 2025), Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by NJN's Director of Government Relations, Madeleine Cereghino, for a conversation about the mass flood of legislative actions revolving around Israel and Palestine that have hit Washington in the last handful of weeks. This episode addresses the basics of how to take action and contact your Representatives and Senators (especially since at the time that this episode is airing, they should all be in their home districts for August recess!), and touches on the ongoing conversation surrounding Palestinian statehood.  To take action on items that NJN has sent out alerts about: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/take-action

Recording of a webinar hosted by NJN and J-LINK on July 29, 2025. The situation in Syria continues to evolve rapidly, with significant implications for regional stability and international relations. With regional alliances shifting and global attention elsewhere, what is the current state of play in Syria? What role can Syria play in future diplomacy? And how might its relations with Israel and the West evolve? New Jewish Narrative and J-LINK cohosted a webinar featuring: Dr. Samir Altaqi -- A former Syrian member of parliament, former advisor to the prime minister, and a leader in track-two diplomatic efforts Amb. Alon Liel -- Former Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Dr. Dafna Rand -- Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Moderated by: Noam Shelef, New Jewish Narrative's Vice President for Communications.

This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from July 24th, 2025.  Project Rozana, a longtime partner of NJN's that works to promote cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis in healthcare, is working to open a new health care clinic in Gaza – an initiative that NJN is proudly supporting.  The conversation featured two Project Rozana leaders: Mohammad Asideh, Rozana's Director of Advocacy and the Executive Director of the Rozana's Palestine office, and Ken Bob, the Chair of Project Rozana USA (and an NJN board member). The conversation was moderated by NJN President and CEO Hadar Susskind. Make a donation: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/give?comments=Gaza%20Clinic

This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from July 8th, 2025. On July 7th, President Trump is met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington, DC. In the days leading up to and following the meeting, the rumors (and the Truth Social posts) have been coming fast and furious. Nobody really knows yet what this meeting means. Some of the questions being asked include: Is a ceasefire about to be announced? Will it be genuinely linked to a process to finally end the Gaza war? When will the hostages be set free? And when can Gazans get unfettered access to humanitarian supplies?  To help us make sense of all of this, New Jewish Narrative hosted a conversation with two experts in Washington foreign policy: NJN's Madeleine Cereghino and journalist Ron Kampeas.