The past couple days have seen some of the most fast-moving and potentially region-altering events since the 10/07 War broke out. To help us better understand what has happened and where events are likely heading, we are joined by:

NADAV EYAL — a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.

MATTHEW LEVITT — the director of the Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Matt served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He later served as a counterterrorism advisor to the special envoy for Middle East regional security. Previously, Matt was a counterterrorism intelligence analyst at the FBI.

Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRTYMukNiy4

To help us better understand the dramatic developments in Lebanon, Nadav Eyal joined us for an emergency episode of the podcast.

NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.

UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor

TODAY'S EPISODE: To help us better understand the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah, Nadav Eyal joined us for an emergency episode of the podcast.

NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.

WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKPqu3CUtg

UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor

SPECIAL SERIES:

As we approach the grim one-year anniversary of 10/07, we are featuring a dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this series was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel.

For the third installment of this special series, we sat down with Yossi Klein Halevi, who is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Yossi has written a number of books, including his latest, "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor," which was a New York Times bestseller. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Times of Israel. He is co-host of "For Heaven's Sake" podcast.

Yossi Klein Halevi's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IXOA04

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

03:10 Reaction to October 7th

11:57 Where did we anticipate we would be a year from October 7th?

14:30 Where is the war heading?

21:29 Israeli Politics

29:00 Defending Israel from abroad

32:12 Can those in the diaspora both defend and criticize Israel?

37:00 The hostage dilemma

44:00 Global opinion of the conflict

49:42 Tension between power and victimhood

52:49 The lasting legacy of this past year

Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/mwhxcdja

UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor

To help us better understand events in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, Nadav Eyal joined us for an emergency episode of the podcast.

NADAV EYAL is a columnist Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.

WATCH THE FULL CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNugi2XnhmI

UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor

SPECIAL SERIES:

As we approach the grim one-year anniversary of 10/07, we are featuring a dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this series was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNugi2XnhmI

For the second installment of this special series, we sat down with Sam Harris – philosopher, neuroscientist, bestselling author and podcaster.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

02:18 Sam’s experience of October 7th

05:44 Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields

09:07 Should Israel risk Israeli lives?

12:15 Response to sympathy towards Palestinians

19:43: Hamas knew exactly who they were targeting

22:00 Jihadist mentality

32:57 The hostage dilemma

38:29: American Anti-Israel protests

45:13 Antisemitism and anti zionism

01:01:28 Antisemitism on the left

01:04:47 Connection to Jewish identity post-October 7th

Episodes of Sam Harris’s “Making Sense” podcast, as referenced in this conversation:

“Why Don’t I Criticize Israel?”:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2-why-dont-i-criticize-israel/id733163012?i=1000316926199

"The Bright Line Between Good and Evil":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFBm8nQ2aBo

To subscribe to Sam Harris’s podcast, Making Sense: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts

To register for Sam Harris’s substack: https://samharris.substack.com/

Share episode on X: https://tinyurl.com/5n8kcm5m

Watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7F7Pq-XI40&t=2914s

Visit our website: https://arkmedia.org/

UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS:

If you are interested in our upcoming Call Me Back live events, you can find further registration details here:

PHILADELPHIA-AREA — September 9 — Join us this Monday night in Lower Merion, just outside of Philadelphia, for a discussion about Israel, the Middle East and the U.S.-Israel relationship with combat veteran and national security expert Dave McCormick, who is running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. To register, please go to: Dan-and-Dave.eventbrite.com

NEW YORK CITY — September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, co-sponsored by UJA Federation of NY, and featuring Amir Tibon on the official launch date of his book The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel's Borderlands. To register, please go to: streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor

NEW EPISODE / NEW SERIES

Since October 7th, on this podcast we have tried to present Israel’s dilemmas and challenges as Israel responded to a genocidal attack from Gaza and what is now a multi-front war. We have tried to do this by talking to Israelis – Israeli journalists, political figures, historians and other thought leaders, and different people from Israel’s civil society. We have tried to provide historical context and perspectives from various actors in the U.S.-Israel relationship from both sides of that relationship.

We did not think we would still be recording these episodes – with this focus – for one year. And yet, here we are — approaching the one-year anniversary of October 7, which will be regarded as one of the darkest days in Jewish history (and one of the darkest days in the history of Western Civilization).

Most of our episodes have been shaped by weekly and daily news developments. But as we approach the one-year anniversary, we wanted to take a step back, and spend extended time with a few of our previous guests and thought leaders who are not our go-to analysts.

We asked each one of them to take a longer horizon perspective, to look back at this past year and the year ahead. In each conversation, we will try to understand the larger lessons these guests have learned as we approach this grim milestone. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this series was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel. You can find a link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7F7Pq-XI40&t=2914s

We begin this series with a conversation with Douglas Murray – war journalist, columnist, and bestselling author. We will be dropping one of these long-form conversations with a different guest each week between now and the first couple weeks after 10/07.

On Sunday, September 8, Douglas Murray will kick off his first ever US Tour with Live Nation. Long before Oct 7, Douglas was a widely read journalist, bestselling author, and one of the most prescient intellectuals in the world. Since Oct 7, he has also become one of the strongest voices for Israel and the Jewish people. Douglas will be sharing experiences from his time in Israel post October 7, including never before seen footage from his time in Israel. Tickets can be purchased through Live Nation’s website: https://www.livenation.com/artist/K8vZ917blC7/douglas-murray-events