Are you aware what you’re speaking about whenever you opine on Israel’s war of survival?
“Give me 5 minutes with an individual’s checkbook,” the late Billy Graham remarked, “and I’ll let you know the place their coronary heart is.”
That well-known dictum is now not true as a result of… who makes use of checkbooks? However a contemporary corollary is now relevant: “Present me the podcasts you comply with in your feed and really take heed to, and I’ll let you know whether or not you’re genuinely knowledgeable about ____.”
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Podcasts have change into an alternative choice to information applications—community, cable or on the radio—and to newspapers. Sports activities pods got here first as followers of particular franchises are “tremendous shoppers” of reports and evaluation of the golf equipment they comply with. My feed is stuffed with Cleveland sports activities for instance: “Terry’s Talkin’” with Terry Pluto and David Campbell of Cleveland.com, together with “Orange and Brown Speak” and “Buckeye Speak” from the identical platform with completely different hosts who cowl the Cleveland Browns and The Ohio State College Buckeyes soccer have been in my podcast feed the longest.
Additionally on the feed is the comparatively new “Kings of the North” pod, hosted by Doug Lesmaires and Invoice Landis, which has solid an idea that “northern” school soccer deserved its personal pod—versus, say, dreaded SEC pods that don’t perceive that the perfect school soccer is performed north of Tennessee. It’s fairly entertaining, in addition to my different common sports activities pods. That’s what the perfect sports activities pods are: entertaining and informative.
Of political and normal information pods, there at the moment are hundreds competing with sports activities pods. I get pleasure from “Getting Hammered” with Mary Katharine Ham and Vic Matus as a result of it’s humorous and topical, and I really feel like I’m listening in to conversations my grownup youngsters is perhaps having. It does cowl some information, however largely it supplies a dive into the knowledgeable views on the information of a unique age cohort.
But when the topic you have an interest in is Israel’s battle in Gaza, and fairly doubtless the approaching, a lot expanded battle between the IDF and Hezbollah on the northern border of the Jewish state, you must be way more selective.
Thus, I’ve change into a every day listener to the Occasions of Israel’s The Day by day Briefing (particularly when the platform’s senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur is a visitor) and it’s “What Issues Now” pod which additionally usually options Rettig Gur, who has change into one thing of a must-listen to interpreter of the battle for non-Israelis.
I found Rettig Gur on the “Name Me Again” podcast hosted by Dan Senor, a pod on which Senor interviews key observers of the battle in Gaza and the chance of one other entrance that exploded in depth within the north. Senor is an American who appears to know just about each journalist and plenty of officers in Israel.
Senor’s March 21 interview of Israeli Warfare Cupboard member Ron Dermer was maybe the primary “strategic” pod I’ve listened to. Dermer fairly clearly had many messages to ship from the Warfare Cupboard to the American public that helps Israel’s battle. He picked Senor’s pod as a result of he wished to talk to that viewers particularly. It was a clever alternative. Senor is a seasoned interviewer however, on this episode, like nearly each different episode, Senor is eliciting info, not dealing out his opinions.
Lastly, I’m not Jewish, however I’m additionally not blind to the surge in antisemitism in america to really staggering ranges, so I make a behavior of listening to each “Commentary” pod that seems in addition to related ones from The Free Press, the platform pioneered by Bari Weiss which has exploded in reputation as an alternative choice to legacy media.
The latter is normally a brand new take with a brand new voice on most episodes, however the Commentary pod has a recurring format: Editor-in-chief of Commentary Journal John Podhoretz leads a every day dialog along with his Govt Editor Abe Greenwald and two or three of his key contributors—Matt Continetti, Seth Mandel and Christine Rosen—by means of each side of Israel’s battle and its impression on Jewish People of the antisemitic Krakatoa that went off within the states after 10/7, in addition to a very good mixture of home American politics as marketing campaign 2024 heads into its third flip.
What “JPod,” as Podhoretz is thought on-line and off, does is just run by means of the present developments along with his gang of very, very good voices—say, a deal with the abstention of the U.S. on final week’s Safety Council Decision decoupling a ceasefire from launch of the hostages or on the views of American Jewry on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Commentary pod additionally welcomes friends like Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, Eli Lake or Eliana Johnson. Additionally they welcome—anticipate it—the outstanding Rettig Gur every so often.
Lastly, I make a degree to take heed to Donniel Hartman, 66, and Yossi Klein Halevi, 71, on their “For Heaven’s Sake” pod, at any time when it seems, as a result of these are two very good previous Israeli associates who’re public intellectuals of nice repute in Israel who appear to me to be left and center-left (and each anti-Netanyahu) and thus sure to introduce me to some Israeli considering that isn’t essentially going to make it into information experiences I ordinarily learn. Additionally they characterize voices from my age cohort with references all through to their 50-plus years of Israeli historical past and politics.
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Backside line, I’d have half as many details and views of the battle if I solely listened to 2 of those 4 podcasts targeted totally on Israel’s battle of survival. If I relied solely on American legacy media, I might have a very distorted view of the battle and could be blind and dumb to huge quantities of essential information in regards to the battle.
Thus, on Friday’s evening “Particular Report”—Gillian Turner sitting in for Bret Baier—the “Winners and Losers of the Week” section got here up, and I rattled off these pods because the “winners of the week” due to their collective protection of this horrible however essential battle. I like to recommend all 4 of them to you as a result of a lot of the protection of the battle in Gaza and what appears prone to be a battle in Lebanon requires lots of info and evaluation that almost all reporters and pundits merely don’t have the time to amass.
Give me 5 minutes along with your podcast feed, and I’ll know not simply your passions, however in all probability your standpoint on politics typically and whether or not or not you’re able to even articulate an knowledgeable opinion on the battle that Israel is waging. Give all of them a strive. Begin, maybe with Senor’s dialog with Dermer from final week and his newest interview or Rettig Gur which posted early Monday morning within the U.S.
Hugh Hewitt is likely one of the nation’s main journalists of the center-right. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard School and the College of Michigan Regulation Faculty, Hewitt has been a Professor of Regulation at Chapman College’s Fowler Faculty of Regulation since 1996, the place he teaches Constitutional Regulation. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio present from Los Angeles in 1990, and it’s right this moment syndicated to lots of of stations and retailers throughout the nation each Monday by means of Friday morning. Hewitt has regularly appeared on each main nationwide information tv community, hosted tv reveals for PBS and MSNBC, written for each main American paper, authored a dozen books and moderated a rating of Republican candidate debates, most not too long ago the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and 4 Republican presidential debates within the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio present and this column on the Structure, nationwide safety, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of hundreds of friends from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that may drive his radio present right this moment.