PODCAST

Lazar Focus

The Times of Israel

Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman explores what"s behind the news that spins the globe

news news commentary

All Episodes

66:19

Haviv Rettig Gur with 6 projections for Israel in 2026

Lazar Focus ·

2026/01/02

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, catch diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, while Berman was in Florida to cover the summit between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan invited senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur to sit in the hot seat and prepare five scenarios for Israel for 2026. Rettig Gur came prepared -- plus one -- and the two spend

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34:43

Lazar Focus: Eran Ortal on where does the IDF go...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/12/26

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, catch diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, we’re joined by Eran Ortal, a brigadier-general (res.) in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and a leading military theorist. Ortal commanded The Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies, and wrote "The Battle Before the War: The Inside Story of the IDF's Transformation," which came in second place for the

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30:00

Lazar Focus: Danielle Pletka on what Trump wants in...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/12/19

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, catch diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, we’re joined by Danielle Pletka, distinguished senior fellow in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she focuses on US foreign policy, the Middle East, and terrorism. Pletka, speaking to Beman from her native Australia, blasts the Albanese government for its failure to

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36:49

Lazar Focus: Jacob Magid on the day that never came -...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/12/12

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, US bureau chief Jacob Magid fills in for Berman and goes in-depth into an exclusive report he published on just how close the Saudis were to normalization with Israel ahead of the Hamas onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and the finer details of former Secretary of

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40:34

Lazar Focus: Did the Red Cross do all it could for...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/12/05

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, we're joined by Julien Lerisson, the head of delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and Occupied Territories. Berman reviews the organization's troubling history of failures regarding Jews, specifically during the Holocaust, but also moving forward in

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31:33

Lazar Focus: As US and Saudi Arabia shore up ties, is...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/11/28

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. Last week, US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in the White House, after which there were several announcements. Among them were a $1 trillion investment by the Saudis into the US economy, the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, advancements in critical

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35:29

Lazar Focus: Is Trump's 'pathway to a Palestinian...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/11/21

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. Last week, the pair spoke with foremost urban warfare expert John Spencer and Borschel-Dan noted that a term -- “nation-building” -- was raised repeatedly. In this week's episode, we explore this concept, starting with defining the term. We hear about previous models of

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38:21

Friday Focus with John Spencer: Hamas can be...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/11/14

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, the duo is joined by military expert John Spencer, chair of War Studies at the Madison Policy Forum and executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute. As of recording time, some 100-200 Hamas terrorists are estimated to be holed up in tunnels in southern Gaza on the Israeli

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29:47

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: Is Israel heading...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/11/07

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. On Thursday afternoon, the IDF launched a wave of strikes in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah targets. These come amid a marked uptick in IDF strikes in southern Lebanon over the past several weeks, as reports continue that the Hezbollah terror group is attempting to

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27:09

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: New hope for...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/10/31

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, amid pomp and circumstance at the Vatican, the Catholic Church marked 60 years to the Nostra Aetate, a document that — among other things — attempts to redefine the two-thousand-year-old relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish

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27:58

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: Does Israel rely on...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/10/24

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. Since US President Donald Trump's whirlwind visit to the Jewish state on Monday of last week, Israel has welcomed a revolving roster of high-level officials visiting the country. This week saw the arrival of Trump’s senior Middle East advisors Steve Witkoff and

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26:43

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: Is Israel's Hamas...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/10/10

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. Israel awaits the release of the 48 hostages -- living and dead -- held by Hamas and other terrorist organizations since the October 7, 2023, onslaught on southern Israel that saw 1,200 slain and another 250 taken captive to the Strip. Ahead of this release, scheduled

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18:46

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: Who's afraid of a...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/09/26

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. On Sunday, the tally of the 193 UN members who recognize a State of Palestine grew to at least 145 as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Portugal formally joined their ranks. Several other countries, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Malta, followed

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25:58

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: An Israel-Syria...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/09/19

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday this week that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.” However, later on Wednesday, an Israeli foreign ministry official told AFP that Syria

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32:42

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: After five years, are...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/09/12

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. It’s September 15, 2020, and on the South Lawn of the White House, a group of leaders from the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain assembled to mark a once-unlikely normalization agreement. Berman talks us through why these countries were

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31:07

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: Yaakov Katz on why...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/09/05

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, Berman takes up the host role for an in-depth interview with author Yaakov Katz about his new book, "While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East," which he co-wrote with Amir Bohbot. A former military correspondent,

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45:24

Friday Focus with Yossi Klein Halevi: Worse than...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/08/29

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This Friday, we present a fourth and final installment of our August mini-series centering on the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza. We launched the series with a zoom-out conversation with public intellectual Dr. Micah Goodman, followed bya personal account of life in Gush Katif by former Nezer Hazani resident

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50:58

Friday Focus with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: Disengagement...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/08/22

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This Friday, we present a third installment of our August mini-series centering on the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, following a zoom-out conversation with public intellectual Dr. Micah Goodman and a personal account of life in Gush Katif by former Nezer Hazani resident Anita Tucker. This week, we hear from

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39:02

Friday Focus with Anita Tucker: A former Gush Katif...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/08/15

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, as Israel marks the beginning of the Disengagement from Gaza 20 years ago, we speak with former Brooklynite Anita Tucker, 79, who helped settle Nezer Hazani in 1977 and was forcibly removed from her home in 2005 alongside her husband, children and grandchildren. Affectionately called "the celery

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44:55

Friday Focus with Micah Goodman: 20 years to...

Lazar Focus ·

2025/08/08

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, as Israel stands poised to re-occupy the entire Gaza Strip, public intellectual and author Dr. Micah Goodman takes us through the Disengagement from Gaza 20 years ago. Goodman, the author of influential works such as “Catch-67,” returns to the origins of the settlement movement and

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Lazar Focus

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