Tel Aviv Diary

Wishing an easy and meaningful fast to all who are fasting. The next issue of Tel Aviv Diary will be published on Tuesday. Israel’s election campaign is now in full swing, and Netanyahu’s considerable political brilliance is once again on display. His opponents are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs, unable to go fully on the offensive over some of the country’s most serious problems.

Marc Schulman sits down with Jeremy Saltan, a candidate on Naftali Bennett’s list, for a detailed conversation about what Bennett and his party would actually do if returned to government. Saltan explains why he chose to run with Bennett and argues that lessons have been learned from Bennett’s previous government, including a much more rigorous process for selecting candidates.

Friends, those of you who have purchased a copy of Between Hope and Fear, when you get a chance, please leave a review on Amazon. And those of you who haven’t bought the book yet, please consider it! I will be traveling over the next two weeks, and between my travels and the holidays, TLV Diary updates may appear a little less regularly than usual. Once again, sending wishes to all for a healthy and happy 5787.

For the past four or five months, it has been clear that the military needs additional funding. Reports indicate that the Defense Ministry owes Israel’s defense industries billions of shekels and is running short of money. None of this is new. The IDF has been warning for months that the extended fighting has driven expenses well beyond what was originally budgeted.

In this Rosh Hashanah edition of the Tel Aviv Diary Podcast, Marc Schulman welcomes back Professor Yitzhak Reiter, one of Israel’s leading experts on Arab-Jewish relations, for a wide-ranging conversation about the changing place of Arab citizens in Israeli society. Arab Israelis have made striking gains in higher education, employment, medicine, technology, and other parts of Israeli life.

I could write tonight about the Houthis, who made surprising military advances today. I could write about our defense minister’s warning to Iran not to attack Israel over the holidays, and the unease that warning has created here. Or I could write about the growing concern that the war with Iran may be about to resume. There was plenty of political machinations today as well.

Last night saw a serious exchange of fire between Iran and the United States. American forces struck several Iranian tankers after Iran reportedly attempted to target U.S. warships. Iran responded with a large barrage of missiles aimed at Jordan, Kuwait and the UAE. It was the largest Iranian missile barrage since the ceasefire that theoretically ended the last round of fighting. The immediate results were limited, with no personnel reported wounded in any of the missile attacks.

The day in Israel began with a breaking news story by Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, published this morning in Haaretz as an excerpt from their new book, which comes out later this week. The book focuses largely on the hostages and the events that led to their abduction and brutal captivity. But the most damning revelation in this morning’s article concerns a phone call that reportedly took place a week before October 7.

In this episode of Tel Aviv Diary, I begin with the conclusions of my new book, Between Hope & Fear: Israel from Oslo to October 7 — Politics, War, and Reinvention. Over three decades, Israel was transformed. It became wealthier, more technologically advanced and more powerful. Yet the fundamental questions that have shaped the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained unresolved.

Almost all the parties have now submitted their candidate lists to the Knesset. Technically, they have until tomorrow, but each wanted to secure its preferred ballot letters, giving them an incentive to file early. I suspect they also wanted to put an end to the last-minute pressure to make further deals or changes. A quick explanation of those “ballot letters.” Voting in Israel is a remarkably manual process.