Many would consider the term ‘death factory’ to be associated with another era, one that is long in the past. But reports have emerged from inside Sednaya prison, bringing to light the horrific death camp and torture complex that was operated by the Assad regime until the regime’s collapse, just one week ago.

Over the past few months, and especially in recent days, we have seen Iran’s decades-old proxy system and strategy collapsing. What are Iran’s options? 

As we witness Iran’s proxy system unravelling, there may be an opportunity for a new hostage deal and temporary ceasefire in Gaza. 

A lot has unfolded in the Middle East over the past 48 hours, with the fall of the Assad regime. Nadav Eyal returns to the podcast today for an emergency episode to discuss the end of Assad’s rule in Syria, and the implications for Israel. 

Over the past week, we have been monitoring developments in Syria, where there has been a significant escalation in its on-again, off-again, and now on-again civil war.

Is Israel winning? This is a question we kept running into in our conversations in Israel with Israelis last week, especially as Israel reached a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah. 

On October 8th, 2023, Hezbollah joined the war against Israel. Now, nearly fifteen months later, a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon may be imminent. 

This past Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant. The warrants were issued on charges of attempting to orchestrate starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity, of “murder and persecution”, in the ICC's terms. A warrant was also issued for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July.

On an almost daily basis, Hezbollah fires hundreds of missiles and rockets into Israel’s North. And yet there seems to be progress being made in negotiations towards a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Well before October 7th 2023, we were already witnessing too many examples of the worst in higher education with a lack of diversity of ideas and debate. Numerous U.S. college campuses had become intellectual and ideological monocultures. Then, immediately following October 7th, we saw something much darker, but perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised. Many of us lament what is happening in higher education. But at CallMeBack, we have also observed some bright spots — universities with inspiring leaders and healthy intellectual climates —  and we want to try to understand what is happening at these universities that have bucked the trend.

In recent weeks, with the IDF focusing most of its attention on the Northern front, the media has been paying less attention to what’s actually happening in Gaza. What would constitute the Gaza War being over? Is there any progress on a Day After Plan for Gaza? What is the status of hostage negotiations and other efforts to free the hostages? What would the future (medium-term/long-term) Israeli presence in Gaza look like?

Regardless of who you voted for in the U.S. presidential election, many of us are continuing to attempt to unpack what happened in this extraordinary election. There has been a lot of analysis of the various demographic shifts. 

Last night in Amsterdam, dozens of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans suffered a pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam, following the soccer team’s match against Ajax.

Tuesday night in Israel, in what came as a shock to many Israelis, Prime Minister Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. At the same time, there was a Red Wave that swept through U.S. politics.

With two days before the US presidential election, there is increasing (and surprising) speculation from within the Israeli security establishment about whether Iran will attack Israel in the days ahead.

Micah Goodman is on the speed-dial of a number of Israeli political leaders – from Right to Left, but especially on the Center-Left and the Center-Right. And Micah has been synthesizing how Israelis view the war with Iran and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

As we continue to assess the threat FROM Iran and the threat TO Iran, we sat down today with two analysts and former national security officials with different perspectives on what we’ve learned so far and next steps.

To help us better understand what happened with Israel’s military operation against Iran, Nadav Eyal and Jonathan Schanzer join us for an emergency episode of the podcast.

For the sixth and final episode in our series, we sat down with Scott Galloway.

The extraordinary success of the elimination of Yahya Sinwar has raised a number of questions about what happens next in the war. And among those asking questions is the community of families of Israeli hostages. In today’s episode, we sat down with two of those family members – Maya Roman and Gil Dickmann. 

Yahya Sinwar is dead. To help us better understand what happened in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the reaction in Israeli society, and what is likely to happen next in Gaza and in Israel, Nadav Eyal and Haviv Rettig Gur join us for an emergency episode of the podcast.

In recent days, the Biden-Harris administration has announced it would deploy the THAAD system to Israel — THAAD is an advanced missile defense system that can thwart short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, as well as the U.S. military personnel to operate it. At the same time, the Biden-Harris administration has issued a blistering letter to Israel’s government threatening to withhold military resources at the time that Israel is planning its response to the October 1st Iranian attack.