Advertise on podcast: On Israel with Ben Caspit, an Al-Monitor podcast

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 operations, are taking place as we speak by the Iranians and by others,” he says. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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, from ever. On the other hand, Liberal Jews have very little knowledge on what Judaism says aside of what Orthodox tells them it says.” He says that the great challenge is to make people understand that there is more than one version to Judaism.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Without the bulldozer campaign, the media and public opinion would have ignored the activists, explains Ofran. "We want to change a bit the language, because the settlers are completely violating the law. They are practically holding the Israeli public and government hostage. They decide where to go and they decide what Israel’s security considerations should be," says Ofran.   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 is of historical proportions. "We are determined to make it work. Not just for this coalition to hold on, but also for this country of us to have a better future," he notes.   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 of a routine for the country, to move from a crisis to a crisis, though each crisis is different." Vatikay argues that Israel responded quickly and accurately when it proposed to the Palestinians to hold a joint investigation over Abu Akleh’s death.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 made by Russian President Vladimir Putin for Lavrov’s words. Still, he regrets that the apology was not included in the readout published by the Kremlin after Putin’s talks with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. "What Lavrov said is what we call an inversion of the Holocaust. The victims suddenly become part, and even the head, of the perpetrators. And this is classic antisemitism." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 Israel’s security and existence — the Iranian nuclear program — Gantz notes that Israel is doing it utmost vis-à-vis its partners and allies to improve a possible agreement with Iran, should there ever be one.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 sophisticated intelligence that IDF unit 8200 members and others in Israel’s defense establishment have collected. "It is true that young men unaffiliated directly with terror organizations who suddenly decide to perpetrate terror attacks are creating an almost unprecedented challenge. However, the world has become hyper connected, and the digital footprint of all of us is constantly rising. And so, the best response to these kinds of attacks would probably be based on very sophisticated, relevant and very big data." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 in principle — gathering as much intelligence as possible. He also says that when we are dealing with a lone attacker, as was the case of the first attacks in Beersheba, the intelligence-gathering challenge is obviously much more complex.   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ben Caspit hosts this week Col. (res.) Ofer Haruvi. After 20 years as a pilot in Israel’s air force, Haruvi co-founded FlightOps, a startup which develops operation systems for drones. Haruvi argues that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are changing modern battlefields. "Each conflict, we see more and more UAVs. Their performance is getting better, they are more integrated into military operations, and therefore their impact on the battlefield is more significant and visible. No military operations today are conducted without UAVs. What we also see now, is that less-sophisticated armies also using them, and even irregular organizations and paramilitary groups." Haruvi notes that drones are now used for most missions. In the past, armies used them mostly for intelligence-collection. Now, however, drones are becoming weapon systems on their own.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Dr. Alon Liel, former Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and former Israeli ambassador to Ankara. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just finished addressing the Israeli parliament via Zoom, calling on the Jewish state to help his country. Liel says he was surprised to see that Zelenskyy’s speech indicated that Ukraine and Israel have very different impressions over the role Jerusalem has been playing so far in this conflict. "Zelensky attacked the Israeli neutrality, Israeli attempts to mediate [vis-à-vis Russia], he attacked Israel for not helping Ukraine militarily, and he attacked Israel for not joining the economic sanctions…During these past three weeks, [Israel] had the impression that Ukraine wants us to mediate. That they had asked us to do so. Also, we did not hear until now a direct request for us to supply them with weapons." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ben Caspit hosts this week former Knesset member Ksenia Svetlova, who grew up in Russia and later made Israel her home. Noting that she still feels shock at the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Svetlova said she keeps herself busy by helping people to evacuate and by writing about what is happening. "I think this policy of Israel of sitting on both chairs, not taking sides, is not justified. It was not justified in 2014 [with the Russian annexation of Crimea], and it is not justified now, when there are many thousands of Jews, millions of Ukrainians, who are being murdered in their homes, while sitting in shelters, or while trying to evacuate," she says.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.