The Commentary Magazine Podcast

On today's podcast, I am filled with nihilistic despair about the state of the Republican race after last night's probably final presidential primary debate, while Matt Continetti and Seth Mandel try to convince me not to curl up in a ball. Plus: College presidents and their hostage videos! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take up the prevarication and plain dishonesty of university presidents during the House committee hearing on campus anti-Semitism. One claims not to know about foreign funding and another doesn't think incitement to anti-Semitic violence is a conduct violation. For Harvard, UPenn, MIT, and others, this was a watershed moment. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why can't Joe Biden face down the protestors on his left? Why is he hedging in his support of Israel? Why hasn't he responded to Iranian attacks on the U.S.? Why doesn't he give Ukraine what it needs to win? And why is he losing to Donald Trump? He's afraid. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast notes that the end of the fighting "pause" in Israel almost denotes the end of the idea of "ceasefire." And now the disingenuous efforts to oppose Israel's self-defense are going by the wayside. This is now leading to outright calls for "intifada" here in the United States—which is the term used over the past 35 years to describe Palestinian efforts to attack Jews for being Jews with any means at hand. And the attacks on American Jews and Jewish public life are only accelerating. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast is a hybrid. The first part, about the appalling rhetoric used by Antony Blinken about Israel and its conduct of the war that has now restarted, was recorded Friday morning, December 1. The second half, about the passing of Henry Kissinger and my trip to the massacre site in Israel, was recorded Thursday afternoon, November 30. Please be understanding as you give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about Chuck Schumer's bold Senate-floor speech warning about anti-Semitism from the left. He said the right words at the right time, but how will it impact the calls from his own party to condition aid to Israel? And what's up with Joe Biden's tweet seeming to nod toward the ceasefire crowd? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we dig into the stories about U.S. hopes for a grand deal leading to a ceasefire. What are negotiators up to? Does Biden think this is going to help him politically? And we talk about the disconnect between Israeli security imperatives and American war weariness. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's podcast, I provide the first of my impressions on a weeklong trip to Israel and what it feels like to be in a country at war—even during this strange period when the rocket fire has stopped and the hostages are being dribbled out by Hamas. The podcast crew joins me in wondering how stiff the spines of Joe Biden and the Israelis can and will remain as Hamas continues to play the hostage card. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we ask whether the daily release of Israeli hostages threatens to obscure the main point: Israel must defeat Hamas. And with fighting paused, how much pressure will the world put on Israel to abandon this aim? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins the pre-Thanksgiving podcast to discuss the contours of the deal to release hostages from Gaza, along with some of the horrifying details of how the soldiers in Israel who will take custody of the children are being instructed to deal with them and the questions they ask, like "Where are Mommy and Daddy?" Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the purported deal to free hostages from Gaza—why it's happening, what has impelled a deal that doesn't look rational on paper, and what might come of it. Also, why did the White House release a birthday-cake picture with Joe Biden in it that looked like the White House was going to be set on fire? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we get into new polling that shows Joe Biden losing to Donald Trump in about 50 different ways. What are Democrats to make of this? Is it too late? The poll also reveals broad American support for Israel and Ukraine. And what's up with talk of a hostage deal with Hamas? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The full podcast crew is back today to discuss the weird moment when people started to crow about how the Israelis weren't finding the Hamas tunnels at the hospital—only to fall silent when they were found. And the anti-Semitism explosion just gets worse, with Elon Musk, Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, and Tucker Carlson playing along. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Halperin joins the podcast today to examine polling data both national and state-level and concludes that Trump is winning the race against Joe Biden and Democrats are kidding themselves if they believe otherwise. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caution: Today's podcast has a lot of cursing on it—cursing about the shockingly bad coverage of the extraordinary March for Israel yesterday and the effort by the mainstream media to bury it in an avalanche of "but really policymakers are concerned" coverage that is, frankly, bull---. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, joins the podcast to give us genuinely helpful advice about how to get around Washington today as so many of us will be traveling to be at the March for Israel on the Mall—where not to park, what Metro stop to use, where to get in, and generally how to have the best time at the most important event for American Jewry since the days of the Soviet Jewry protests. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins today's podcast as we ask what the fallout from Tim Scott's decision to depart the Republican race for president will mean and sketch out a long-shot scenario that would give Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley a real chance to challenge Donald Trump. Then we discuss Meigs's extraordinary article, "They Forgot to Be Afraid," about the systemic failure of Israeli deterrence at the Gaza border and how it parallels so many other disasters. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins today's podcast to discuss the various scenarios in which Nikki Haley really does have a shot at taking the Republican nomination from Donald Trump. We even do a lightning round on whether her successful debate appearances mean her chances are real or illusory. And what does the Israeli agreement to a four-hour "humanitarian pause" mean? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with a discussion of the Republican debate before we turn to the astonishing revelations that trusted stringers for a series of Western news organizations, among them the AP, Reuters, and CNN, were actually with the Hamas monsters who slaughtered and wounded 5,000 Israelis on October 7—and were, at least until last night, still collecting checks from these organizations. How could this happen? The answer: Decades of reliance on local "stringers" who are actually operatives for the bad guys. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the results of the 2023 elections and show how abortion is still winning for Democrats and how Republicans just keep losing and losing and losing and why. Also, why it matters that Rep. Rashida Tlaib was censured—or did she want this? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about the ramped-up anti-Semitic violence exploding almost simultaneously across the country, including the fatal attack on a Jewish man in Los Angeles. What's going on and how did we get here? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins us to talk about his new book, The Genius of Israel, co-written with Saul Singer, and why its portrait of the war-torn country—finished long before the war—offers an explanation for the country's extraordinarily cohesive response to the October 7 attack and shows Israel its own way forward to victory. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meghan McCain joins the podcast to help buck up our spirits about how ordinary Americans really feel about Israel and Hamas as opposed to the elites on campuses who are siding with evil. And we discuss, yet again, the politically suicidal nature of Joe Biden's courtship of the forces who want to keep Israel from winning the war. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the horrible story of the still-unsolved murder of Samantha Woll and the haste with which Detroit police said it had not been a hate crime—but never said why they believed this and have not yet even apparently found a person of interest in the case whose presence would refute the idea that a young synagogue president was stabbed to death without apparent cause. And where are the Cambridge and Harvard police when it comes to the president of the Harvard Law Review menacing and possibly assaulting a Jewish student? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast asks what kind of condition the presidential race is in a year before we vote, and whether the gravity of a deteriorating world is being met with the kinds of political figures up to the challenge. Then....hotel showers! Why are they so terrible? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast features three listener questions about the success of Hamas's PR strategy, how the Jewish community can protect itself, and whether Jews should demonstrate the way the anti-Semites are demonstrating. And Commentary Recommends is back! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

oday's podcast takes up the fact that the kosher dining hall at Cornell University was closed yesterday out of an "abundance of caution" because of some online threats. We discuss the danger represented by this attitude and how people need to move out of the pre-October 6 idea of how to handle things into the post October 7 fact of how Jews are to protect themselves, be protected, and fight back against those who would do us ill. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast is about how the idea that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are two different things has been completely demolished by the targeting of Jews worldwide in the wake of a massacre...of Jews. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins us today to continue our conversation about the nature of the rhetorical and protest attacks on Israel and how they are meant to befuddle, confound, and depress Israel's followers. The only real solution: Israel needs to win in Gaza. Plus: A new speaker! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast discusses the psy-op the Left and the anti-Zionists and others are working on everyone who wants the world to stay focused on the threat to Israel and the Jewish people—and offers some tips on how to help combat the psy-op and give it back to them. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about the Biden administration's sudden alarm about Israel's war on Hamas. Where is this coming from? Is this what the president meant by standing with Israel? We also touch on Trump's rise in some new polls and try to make sense of what's happening among Republicans in the House. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have with us Michal Cotler-Wunsh, who is Israel's envoy for combatting global anti-Semitism. If there is one COMMENTARY podcast we've ever done that you should listen to from beginning to end, this is the one. So don't just, as we say, Give it a listen. Listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COMMENTARY senior editor Seth Mandel makes his debut on the podcast to discuss Joe Biden's strange and unfortunate address from the Oval Office last night. What should the president have said about assisting Ukraine and Israel? What did he say instead? And why was the whole thing so all over the place. Plus mailbag. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks askance at, and is horrified by, and laughs at, the protest at the Capitol yesterday by "Jewish organizations" working as propagandists for Jew-killing organizations. And then we take apart, word by word, the New York Times's effort to exculpate itself for responsibility for the violence in the wake of its false reporting of the hospital rocket strike. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer, author of this month's lead article, joins us to discuss Biden's visit to Israel and the seeming delay in Israel's moves to begin the war it must fight in Gaza. What's happening and why? And we spend some time commending the people who are putting their money and their words where their ideas are and hitting colleges and universities in their pocketbooks. Also, nepotism be damned, I recommend my father Norman Podhoretz's legendary article, "J'Accuse." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are joined today by the American-Israeli tech entrepreneur Michael Granoff, who is organizing an unprecedented effort to provide Israel with a supply chain from the United States. It's called Operation Falcon, and you can find out more at tinyurl.com/operationfalcon. We talk about the mood in Israel, the mood in America, and why Israel will not be easily buffeted by the inconstancy of American and American-Jewish public opinion. And we make some announcements about changes at the magazine and the website. Today's recommendation: the seminal 1968 COMMENTARY article, "Jewish Faith and the Holocaust: A Fragment." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast raises the question: Are we dwelling too much on the trauma being suffered in the wake of the Hamas slaughters and on the humanitarian-crisis nature of war in general rather than stiffening our resolve and readying ourselves for a long and necessary conflict? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noam Blum of Tablet joins us to discuss Tablet's effort to collect the testimonies relating to the massacre of Jews on October 7. Can we bear to listen? Can we bear not to? (Warning: We use some explicit language on this one.) Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sen. Tom Cotton joins the podcast today to discuss Israel's path going forward, the potential inconstancy of the Biden administration in supporting Israel's prosecution of the war, the president's fecklessness toward Iran, and other cheerful items. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast commends Joe Biden's speech about Israel and Hamas, worries over the durability of his commitment, and cites the astonishing level of pro-Hamas support from places like...MSNBC, owned by Comcast, a multibillion-dollar cable company that seems to be OK with a network it owns providing propagandistic emotional support for Jew-killers. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast to talk about the fecklessness of the Biden administration and how that may have given Iran a sense it could act with impunity—and whether, once again, America will go wobbly when it comes to Israel defending itself. Only this time, will Bibi Netanyahu's country allow its leaders to go wobbly in response? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins today's podcast to mourn with us at the horrors in Israel, to reflect on the burdens and the courage of Israeli people, and worry about the world's inconstancy in the face of a long and possibly brutal war Israel must win. You will note there is no intro music and no outro music, and no ads. This is a grim day. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast dives deeply into the change in Joe Biden's attitude toward the border wall, noting a promise he made in August 2020 that his administration would not add "a foot of wall" to Trump's barrier. Well, here we are, and many feet of wall are about to be added. What gives? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast scratches its head at the news that Joe Biden is...building a border wall? And throwing $9 billion in debt-relief aid at student loans even though the Supreme Court said his last plan was unconstitutional? Meanwhile, in New York, Trump's argument that the fraud case against him is "election interference" is getting pretty good support from...the judge in the case? And the state attorney general? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Kraushaar of Jewish Insider joins the podcast today to survey the wreckage of the House Republicans in the wake of the defenestration of the Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and the triumph of his adversary, Matt Gaetz. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at three shocking crimes committed in American cities in the past two days and wonders if this might be the turning point for the liberal dominance on these matters in urban areas. And Trump's on trial—how bad will this be for him or will it be bad at all? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt joins today's podcast to talk about the House shenanigans over the past week, from Republicans at war with each other to radical Democrats pulling fire alarms. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long joins the podcast to talk about the career of the late Dianne Feinstein, the end of the WGA strike, and the stunning success of Sound of Freedom. Plus Mailbag! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What on earth did we see last night at the Reagan Library? Did it change the race at all? Who, if anyone, benefitted from the shambolic but dull second Republican debate? And is there any utility to the format at this point in our politics? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins the podcast to talk about the upcoming Republican debate and what the strategies of the various debaters should be, what they should talk about, and how to maximize their own gains. Also, the Iran echo chamber turns out to have been created by...Iran? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices