Tel Hai: Rethinking Israel's Founding Myth
Tel Hai is a small historic site in the Galilee where, in 1920, a tense standoff between Jewish farmers and Arab fighters erupted into a dea...
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Unpacking Israeli History
Go behind the scenes of Israeli history with self-confessed history nerd Noam Weissman. Each week, he offers a fresh perspective on some of the most controversial and interesting events in t...
Episodes
20 of 195 episodesSpecial Crossover: Can Israelis And Palestinians Ever Live In Peace? With Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
Will the war ever truly come to an end? Can two populations with so much pain find common ground? Or is the hurt too deep, too vast to overc...
Good Jews Only? Confronting New York Magazine's Habibi City Story
Noam Weissman unpacks the firestorm around New York Magazine’s "Habibi City" issue and traces the deeper historical pattern behind it: the d...
Durban 2001: How Zionism Became a Dirty Word
In August 2001, Jewish delegates arrived at the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban expecting to fight bigotry. Instead they walked...
Why Israeli Elections Never Produce a Clear Winner
How do Israeli elections actually work? Israelis don't vote directly for prime minister, no party has ever won a majority, and a party with...
Live from Camp Tel Yehudah: Teens Talk Antisemitism, Identity, and Israel
What do Jewish teens really think about Israel? Noam Weissman takes the podcast to Camp Tel Yehudah for a special live episode, exploring Is...
Israel's Eurovision story: Boos, ballads, and breaking up with Europe (Part 2)
A little Israeli boy from a poor Yemenite family grew up, transitioned, and became the most scandalous, fabulous Eurovision winner in histor...
Israel's Eurovision story: How a Middle Eastern country crashed Europe's biggest party (Part 1)
Why does Israel compete in Eurovision if it's not even in Europe? In Part 1, Noam Weissman unpacks how Israel went from Eurovision newcomer...
Live from Camp Lavi: Teens Take on Israel's Toughest Moments
It's summer. Where else do you want to be? Sleepaway camp, obviously. Unpacking Israeli History packed its bags and went to camp. Noam Weiss...
Israel Open Mic: Is the Palestinian flag Illegal in Israel?
A man is detained over a kippah bearing both the Israeli and Palestinian flags. Was it legal? Noam unpacks the surprising history of the Pal...
Should We Retire the Word ‘Zionism’? With Haviv Rettig Gur
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Noam sits down with Haviv Rettig Gur...
50 Years Since Entebbe: Operation Thunderbolt
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Fifty years ago, Air France Flight 139...
Nas Daily: The Identity Crisis October 7 Forced Me to Face
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Does identity define us or limit us? Noam sear...
The Battle for Jerusalem: Ammunition Hill
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! In June 1967, Israeli paratroopers fough...
Yitzhak Rabin: Not the Peacenik You Think He Was (Special Crossover)
Noam Weissman joins Yael Steiner and Jonathan Schwab over at Jewish History Nerds for a special crossover episode on Yitzhak Rabin through t...
Hezbollah Revisited: The Origins of Iran's Most Powerful Proxy
To understand why Iran and Israel are fighting, you have to understand Hezbollah. Noam Weissman revisits the story of Iran's proxy in Lebano...
The Scandal That Changed Israel Forever: The Rotten Business (Part 2)
In 1954, a group of young Jewish idealists in Egypt were recruited by Israeli intelligence to plant bombs in Western institutions, only to b...
The Scandal That Changed Israel Forever: The Lavon Affair (Part 1)
The scandal that changed Israel forever began with a failed secret operation in Egypt in 1954. Young Egyptian Jews, recruited by Israeli int...
How to Kill Israeli Self-Criticism
Israel is no stranger to self-examination. In 1948, Ben-Gurion distributed a poem accusing Israeli soldiers of murder. In 1982, hundreds of...
Real abuse, Reckless Reporting: Haviv Rettig Gur Dissects Kristof's Israel Prison Story
Journalist Haviv Rettig Gur joins Noam to respond to Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column alleging sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees...