The Deep Dive

Israel is heading into what Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Zvika Klein calls one of its most consequential elections ever, and he explains why the right bloc is in "shambles."In this wide-ranging conversation with Jacob Laznik, Klein argues that Likud's last-minute candidate list, the delayed primary, the fight over "reserved" seats, a former hostage and a top defense figure placed in slots that "make no sense," has quietly hobbled Netanyahu's party even as it leads the polls.He contrasts that scramble with Gadi Eizenkot's disciplined, low-noise campaign, unpacks why the much-hyped "third bloc" collapsed, and walks through the coalition math around Ra'am and the Joint List.On the issues voters actually feel, he doesn't hold back: "It's insane that we don't have a probe. It's insulting." And he lays out what any next government must confront first, the haredi draft, a real commission of inquiry, and an overhaul of Israel's diplomacy and advocacy on the scale of "an Ariel Sharon magnitude" shake-up.It's a candid, insider read on Israeli politics, one that will frustrate partisans on both sides, from the newsroom leader who tracks the coalitions, the polling, and the personalities day to day. Whether you back the current government or want it gone, this is the context behind the headlines.

The UK targeted imports from Israeli settlements, and a dozen countries followed. Symbolic gesture or real economic threat? The Jerusalem Post's editor-in-chief, Zvika Klein, weighs in. In this episode of The Deep Dive, host Jacob Laznik sits down with Klein to unpack the UK's escalated measures on West Bank trade and the coordinated statement from roughly a dozen other governments, with Germany's notable absence.The two don't agree: Laznik argues the economic hit is minimal and the move is mostly "messaging," while the editor pushes back that Israel is misreading its own strength. "We don't see ourselves as strong as we are," he argues, warning that Israel's post-October-7 instinct to answer everything as if it were a military threat is widening the gap between how Israel reacts and how the world sees it.The conversation ranges from the BDS "slippery slope" and the SodaStream boycott that ended up hurting Palestinian workers, to Israel's expulsion of British coordination personnel from Kiryat Gat and what that means for the plan to replace Hamas in Gaza.With Israel deep in an election campaign, both hosts land on a striking irony: sanctions meant to pressure the prime minister may boomerang and strengthen him at the ballot box. It's a candid, occasionally combative look at the difference between a headline and its actual consequences.

Days before Israel's parties lock in their final Knesset lists, most polls show Gadi Eisenkot's bloc ahead of Netanyahu's Likud, and the right is scrambling to hold its votes.Jerusalem Post Knesset and political correspondent Keshet Neev joins host Jacob Laznik on The Deep Dive to break down the mergers, defections and coalition math shaping the race.They dig into the "third bloc" of new right-wing parties pressuring Netanyahu, Ofer Winter's headline-grabbing launch with activist Yosef Hadad at No. 2, and the Gilad Erdan–Yuli Edelstein list that pitched itself as the Likud alternative but never caught fire.Neev also shares the surprise from her own recent sit-down with Naftali Bennett, whose tone on a possible Netanyahu pardon has notably softened since the spring, even as he holds firm against sitting in a Netanyahu government.As she puts it, "the closer we get to the elections, the more nasty it's going to get." The conversation closes on what may be the most overlooked story of the cycle: Mansour Abbas keeping Ra'am out of the reduced Arab joint list while reportedly slotting a Jewish former police chief at No. 2, a first in the party's history that could reshape the coalition arithmetic.With lists due within days and elections set for no later than October 2026, this is the map you'll want before the campaign turns personal.

Everyone thinks the Iran file has stalled. Ex-IDF officer Or Horvitz argues the opposite: a quiet US strategy shift is already underway. In this Deep Dive episode, host Jacob Laznik sits down with JPPI Senior Fellow Or Horvitz, former head of the IDF's Hezbollah and Lebanon desk, to argue that Washington has quietly abandoned deal-making for a "maximum pressure 2.0" campaign aimed at the collapse of the Iranian regime, and that almost no one in mainstream coverage is naming it.Horvitz maps the two camps inside the Trump administration (Secretary Rubio betting pressure topples the regime, VP Vance betting it forces compromise), why he thinks negotiating with today's hawkish leadership is pointless, and how Iran's economic freefall sets a starting point far worse than the first sanctions era."I genuinely now believe that there is no other way but to topple this regime," he says, while warning, "Iran is a bully, and you cannot appease a bully."Drawing on the Reagan-era pivot from containment to proactive pressure against the USSR, Horvitz explains why change has to come from inside Iran, what the West missed during the January uprising, his fear of a secret nuclear program in the desert, and the historic window opening in Lebanon as a cash-starved Iran can no longer fund Hezbollah.He closes on Syria's new leadership, the growing-but-lesser challenge of Turkey, and a plea to strip Israeli and American foreign policy of election-season politics. Sober analysis with, in his words, cautious optimism.

Host Jacob Laznik asks Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, a Talmud scholar and a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), whether Israel is doing itself long-term damage by deferring everything until October 27.Her answer, before the question is finished: yes.She argues campaign season structurally rewards extremism, and that she watches the bill come due in her day job, sitting across from European partners who quote Israeli ministers back at her.On Netanyahu's apparent silence, she pushes back hard: "He's not playing to win, he's playing to upset the other party." On the right accepting American control over Israeli security decisions, she's blunt, grateful Trump got the hostages out, but "it should have been our decision."Having spent October 7, 2023 as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, Siegel makes a case Israel still hasn't absorbed: every Jew abroad is now identified with Israel, whether they chose it or not.