Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

Since 3 am on Friday morning, Israel has been at war with Iran. We begin the program with a pause to look at how each of us sees this Israeli moment.

Rettig Gur weighs in on how this war with Iran was inevitable ever since Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and began the ongoing war in Gaza.

The IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir told Israel's political leaders in the past day that the campaign in Iran is essential to ensure "the existence of the Jewish people," according to Israel's Channel 12. "The operation in Iran is an operation to defend the existence of the Jewish people. History will not forgive us if we do not act now."

We discuss the tipping point of launching the operation and the international media's cynicism that it was begun in part as a ploy for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay in power. A constant critic of Netanyahu, today, Rettig Gur applauds his courage in taking on Iran.

Finally, we hear Rettig Gur's thoughts on Netanyahu's hopes that the Iranian people will use this opportunity to shake off their shackles of oppression and overturn the regime.

And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, February 7, 2025, . (OFFICE OF THE IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER via AP)

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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Rabbi Noa Sattath, the head of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

For Pride Month, we discuss the history of the openly gay community in Israel and the connection between the LGBTQ+ struggle for equal rights and the broader struggle for democracy in Israel.

Sattath, an ordained Reform rabbi who until recently served as Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), was also previously the Executive Director of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance.

We hear Sattath's thoughts on the intersectionalism expressed by many members of the global gay community in their support for Hamas and condemnation of Israel during the war.

For Sattath, the current visibility of the LGBTQ+ community once seemed like a farfetched dream. In seeing what has been accomplished in a relatively short time, she is inspired in her work at ACRI, including the struggle to maintain human rights for Palestinians detained on and after the murderous Hamas onslaught on October 7, 2023.

And so this week, we ask Rabbi Noa Sattath, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: NYC Pride float calling for a 'Free Palestine' rides through the annual Pride March into the West Village on June 30, 2024, in New York City. (Alex Kent/Getty Images/AFP)

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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI editor David Horovitz.

How do you cover a war when no objective, proven journalists are allowed to report independently in the war zone?

And when one side of the conflict -- a terrorist regime -- floods international media with its narrative while the other side -- an attacked sovereign nation -- provides no narrative, guess which side's story makes front pages?

This week on What Matters Now, Horovitz lays out the challenges of penetrating the fog of this war within the constraints of an Israeli information vacuum.

"The hardest challenge for journalists, and it's certainly never been harder for us in the last 19-20 months, is to get the facts first... Getting to the facts has never been harder," said Horovitz.

And so this week, we ask ToI editor David Horovitz, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: Palestinians run following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.