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• Episode 29: After the Druze massacre, can Israel make peace with Joulani? A conversation with Druze activist Rania Fadel Dean

  The clashes in Sweida in southern Syria this week focused world attention on the plight of the Druze and questions about the nature of the new Syrian government. Videos and claims of atrocities drove hundreds of Golan Druze to rush into Syria to the rescue of their brethren. Israeli strikes in Damascus against Syrian forces raised the stakes and led to questions, including in Israel itself, about how Israel can protect the Druze while not sacrificing an expansion of the Abraham Accords.Rania Fadel Dean comes from a prominent Israeli Druze family. Her organization, Covenant, seeks to teach Americans about the Druze community. She joins us to share an Israeli Druze perspective, including what she's hearing from friends and family members in Sweida.This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, strong supporters of Israel who recognize Israel's centrality and vitality to the Jewish world. They asked to dedicate this episode to lone soldiers serving in the IDF.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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• Episode 28: The Gaza Paradox

  As hostage talks seem stalled and the war grinds on into its 22nd month, doubts about Netanyahu’s strategy and intentions have become ubiquitous.Netanyahu has given many reasons to distrust him, including his simple refusal to explain the strategy for removing Hamas and Israel’s vision for a post-Hamas Gaza.But it isn’t enough to criticize Netanyahu’s strategy or even to argue he doesn’t have one. To offer an effective critique, critics need to suggest a better strategy for removing Hamas and securing a better future for Gaza.So far, criticism of Netanyahu has either avoided this step or suggested that Hamas cannot, in fact, be disentangled from Gaza, that Gaza’s future is inevitably a Hamas future.In this episode, we dive into these questions. We ask what it would mean for both Israelis and Palestinians if Hamas is, as the critics claim, unremovable.This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, strong supporters of Israel who recognize Israel’s centrality and vitality to the Jewish world. They asked us to say that they are proud to sponsor this episode of “Ask Haviv Anything” because this podcast makes understanding the Middle East a bit easier. They have dedicated this episode to the courageous and incredibly imaginative women and men of the Mossad, who make television look boring and simplistic in comparison to their daring exploits behind enemy lines.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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• Episode 27: Music amidst trauma - a conversation on life in a war with Aya Korem and Adam Ben Amitai

  There are many ways to process and manage painful and difficult times. After the massacre of October 7 and the multi-front war that ensued, many Israelis turned to music, and often to the powerful ballads and melodies of singer-songwriter duo (and married couple) Aya Korem and Adam Ben Amitai.Aya and Adam join us in a special song-laden episode to take a look back at 21 months of pain, resilience, solidarity and, in the end, also hope.This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, who believe in Israel's centrality and importance for the Jewish world.They chose to dedicate this episode to Edut710en.org, a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative established in the wake of October 7 to listen to, document, preserve, share and amplify the voices of survivors, first responders, and entire communities who experienced Hamas’s brutal attack firsthand. Over 1,600 testimonies have already been recorded to this date—many of them accessible at www.edut710.org.We hope you like our new musical intro, written just for us by the incomparable Adam Ben Amitai.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]⁠.A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

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• Episode 26: How Iran’s regime subverted Shia Islam - with Hussain Abdul-Hussain

  The Iranian regime has long claimed to be the bearers of Shia Islam's vision of messianic redemption. The Supreme Leader, who ruled under regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini's ideology of "wilayat al-faqih," or Guardianship of the Jurist, created a new model of a revolutionary conquering Shiism that was previously unknown in Shia Islam, at least in its Arab version.We are joined in this episode by Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a Shia Muslim writer and analyst in Washington DC and research fellow at FDD. Hussain grew up in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War and in Lebanon toward the end of the country's devastating civil war.Arab Shiism, Hussain argues, is not what the Iranian regime has tried to make of it, and once freed of the financial, political and often violent influence of Khomeinist "revolutionary" ideology, will revert to its traditionally peaceful ways.This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, strong supporters of Israel who recognize Israels' centrality and vitality to the Jewish world. They chose to dedicate this episode to the memory of Igal and Amit Wachs, 53 & 48, American-Israeli brothers who died on October 7, 2023, defending their home of Netiv Ha'asara in the Gaza envelope.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]⁠.A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

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• Episode 25: What is happening in Gaza?

  A bombshell Haaretz report last Friday concluded that IDF soldiers were responsible for a great many of the deaths of Gazan civilians outside aid distribution centers in Gaza.What should we make of the report? How reliable is it? And what does it tell us about the army's handling of Gaza and the progress of the war?This episode was sponsored by an anonymous donor in memory of the seven IDF soldiers who were killed on June 24, 2025, during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip. Their names were: Lt. Matan Shai Yashinovski, Staff Sgt. Ronel Ben-Moshe, Sgt. Ronen Shapiro, Sgt. Maayan Baruch Pearlstein, Staff Sgt. Niv Radia, Sgt. Shahar Manoav, and Staff Sgt. Alon Davidov. May their memory be a blessing.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]⁠.A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

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