Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast

To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/

Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor

Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor

------------------------------------------------------>>

Please follow this link to subscribe to SAPIR, a quarterly publication edited by Bret Stephens: sapirjournal.org/CallMeBack

------------------------------------------------------>>

Last month we published the first in a series of interviews with former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, telling the story of the October 7th War from his unique vantage point. Our first interview, “Four Days in October,” focused on the intense deliberations that took place behind closed doors regarding the possibility of Israel responding to its stronger adversary first, Hezbollah in Lebanon, rather than Hamas in the Gaza Strip. If you have not heard or seen that interview, you can find it here.

For the second interview in our series with General Gallant, we focused on the most difficult aspect of this war - the hostages in Gaza and the efforts to bring them home.

Yoav Gallant served as Israel’s Defense Minister from 2022 until 2024. He was fired by Benjamin Netanyahu twice in those two years, first in 2023, when massive protests in Israel led Netanyahu to reverse his decision, then again in November of 2024. Gallant is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party. His military career spans five decades, beginning in 1977 as a naval commando in Shayetet 13, and serving as chief of the IDF’s Southern Command during Operation Cast Lead, an early war with Hamas that lasted from late 2008 to early 2009.

CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor

YARDENA SCHWARTZ - Executive Editor of Ark Media

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research Intern

YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

AMIEL SHAPIRO - Voice Actor

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast

To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/

Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor

Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor

Last week, three federal agencies — including the Department of Education — announced a comprehensive review of the funding relationships between the federal government and Columbia University in regards to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Like most universities, Columbia receives a great deal of federal funding.

The Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, created by the Trump Administration, announced that it will visit 10 university campuses that have seen a shocking rise in antisemitism since October 7, 2023.

According to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, “Americans have watched in horror for more than a year now, as Jewish students have been assaulted and harassed on elite university campuses. Unlawful encampments and demonstrations have completely paralyzed day-to-day campus operations, depriving Jewish students of learning opportunities to which they are entitled. Institutions that receive federal funds have a responsibility to protect all students from discrimination. Columbia’s apparent failure to uphold their end of this basic agreement raises very serious questions about the institution’s fitness to continue doing business with the United States government.”

According to Maya Sulkin in the Free Press, “even though Columbia formed a Task Force on Antisemitism weeks after Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, and issued two reports that revealed shocking instances of Jew hate on campus—not just among students but professors and administrators—the college has done little to root out the problem.”As a result, on Friday the Trump Administration announced the cancellation of $400 million in federal grants to and contracts with Columbia.

Following these developments, one could be left with the impression that higher education is doomed. Yetwe were struck by the reaction from the Call Me Back community to a conversation we had with the Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, Daniel Diermeier, last November, in an episode titled “How Vanderbilt University is getting it right.” It reminded us that some universities have impressively navigated the past 16 months.

Vanderbilt is one of them. Another is Washington University. The Chancellors of both universities (Washington University Chancellor Andrew Martin and Vanderbilt’s Diermeier) recently issued a set of principles that every university should be able to adopt. They summarized these principles in a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, titled: “Universities Must Reject Creeping Politicization.” You can read it here:

There have been other universities, like the University of Michigan, which in the months after October 7, 2023 experienced massive disruptions. Yet according to conversations we have had with current Jewish students, the university administration has been doing much better than others. University of Michigan President Santa Ono has taken promising steps on a number of fronts, including the University’s relationship with Israel, that could also serve as a model.

So, against the backdrop of chaos at Columbia and Barnard this past week, we sat down with WashU’s Andrew Martin and Michigan’s Santa Ono at the ADL’s “Never is Now” Summit in New York City, for a candid conversation about what has happened at each of their universities, lessons learned, and charting a path forward.

Additional items:

ADL’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card: https://www.adl.org/campus-antisemitism-report-card

-Free Press reporting on Columbia University:

https://www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-trump-administration-cancels

-https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-columbia-antisemitism-federal-funding

CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Editor

YARDENA SCHWARTZ - Executive Editor of Ark Media

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research Intern

YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pSSh03tpRII

To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/

Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor

Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor

The Two-State Solution had been on life support long before October 7. While Hamas’s massacre shattered Israelis from all walks of life, those from the kibbutzim near the Gaza border — many of whom lifelong advocates for a Palestinian State — were among the hardest hit.

Though stark divisions in Israeli society remain, there now seems to be a broad consensus among the people of Israel and their political parties on one conclusion: the two-state solution is all but dead. Yet one Israeli leader - one of the very few who battled terrorists in Southern Israel and rescued Israelis on October 7 - continues to hold out hope.

Yair Golan is a decorated general, former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff and head of the The Israeli Democrats Party. We sat down with General Golan to discuss Israel’s future, the misconceptions that led to October 7, and the unique role he played on that darkest of days.

CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Editor

YARDENA SCHWARTZ - Executive Editor of Ark Media

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research Intern

YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast

To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/

Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor

Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor

On Thursday, the IDF released the scathing findings of its probe into the military failures that led up to and accompanied the massacre of October 7, 2023.

According to those findings, the military vastly underestimated Hamas’s capabilities, misread its intentions, and failed to mount an effective response to the mass invasion of Israel’s borders. The IDF’s probe into its own failures reveals both the extent to which warnings went ignored, and the extent to which so many communities in Southern Israel were forced to fend for themselves.

While some of these findings come as no surprise, they are still shocking and devastating to process. We spoke with two of Israel’s leading national security journalists to walk through the key points of the findings.

Amos Harel is the Defense Analyst at Haaretz, and Nadav Eyal is a Senior Political Analyst at Yediot Achronot.

CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Additional Editing

YARDENA SCHWARTZ - Executive Editor of Ark Media

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjgvkBGiejU&t=40s

To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/

Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor

Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor

An entire nation mourned yesterday as Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were laid to rest, following a procession through streets of Israel that were lined with thousands of Israelis. As Yarden Bibas delivered eulogies for his wife and children who were murdered by terrorists in Gaza, we were all reminded of the millions of people around the world who celebrated or justified the attacks that shattered their lives and so many others. While much of that moral confusion has emanated from the Left of the political spectrum, the courage and moral conviction of one leader on the Left has stood out.

Over the past 16 months, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has been one of the staunchest supporters of Israel’s war against Hamas. Fetterman, a Democrat who is not Jewish, has been more outspoken in his support for Israel than most of his Jewish colleagues. As a result, Fetterman has gone from being a hero of the Left to becoming a lightning rod for many progressives. And yet, he has not backed down from the fight he perceives as a decisive turning point for his party, and a test for whether or not it will continue to stand for true liberal values.

John Fetterman, Senator and former Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, joined us to discuss his controversial stance on an issue that has divided the Democratic party, and what the future holds for his party.

CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Additional Editing

STAV SLAMA - Director of Operations

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast

To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/

Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor

Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor

As phase 1 of the ceasefire and hostage deal enters its final week, the fate of phase 2 of the deal remains uncertain. While hostages’ families are urging for a continuation of the deal to bring all the remaining hostages home, parts of the Israeli government are pressing for a return to the war.

With Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff traveling to the region this week to push for an extension of the deal, we turned to a Call Me Back regular and leading Israeli journalist to make sense of the mixed signals we are seeing from every direction.


Amit Segal is a columnist for Yediot Ahronot, and a senior political analyst for Israel’s Channel 12.

CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor
MARTIN HUERGO - Additional Editing
STAV SLAMA - Director of Operations
GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research
YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Housekeeping note:

Ark Media, the humble home of this podcast, is looking for a purpose-driven Chief Operating Officer, to help facilitate its ambitious plans for the future. If you are interested in applying for the position, please follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/mp5udcxr

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast

To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/

Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor

Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor

Following a gut-wrenching 48 hours for the Bibas family and for all of us, six living hostages were released from Gaza today, including two who had been held there not for a year, but a decade. Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Tal Shoham were abducted on October 7, 2023. Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli, and Hisham al-Sayed, an Israeli Arab, had crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015, and were then taken hostage by Hamas.

Hamas’s decision to release more living hostages than originally planned today is believed – according to our Israeli sources – to be a response to a sustained American pressure campaign. Part of that pressure includes President Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and relocate its entire population.

Two weeks since its unveiling, Trump’s Gaza proposal has continued to drive headlines and debate around the world. Though that proposal is already impacting the policy decisions of various stakeholders in Gaza, it is still largely perceived as a shocking, unprecedented idea. For this episode of Call Me Back, we sat down with a historian who argues that Trump’s plan is in fact aligned with the outcome of many modern wars.

Andrew Roberts is a British historian, member of the House of Lords, and the author of 24 books, including the New York Times bestseller, Churchill: Walking with Destiny. In a recent article for the Washington Free Beacon, Roberts writes, “peoples who unleash unprovoked aggressive wars against their neighbors and are then defeated…lose either their government or their sovereignty, or both.”

To read more by Andrew Roberts on this topic, go to the Washington Free Beacon: https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-historical-case-for-trumps-riviera/

This morning in Gaza, in a ceremony that was even more twisted than those that came before it, Hamas paraded four coffins, containing the dead bodies of four hostages who were killed in captivity, before handing them over to the Red Cross. Israel then received the remains of Oded Lifshitz, an 83-year-old peace activist abducted from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz; and the bodies of the iconic young mother Shiri Bibas, and her boys, Kfir and Ariel, who were respectively 9 months old and 4 years old at the time of their abduction, also from Nir Oz, which lost a quarter of its residents on October 7, 2023.

Shiri, Kfir and Ariel came to symbolize Hamas’s brutality and the helplessness of the victims of October 7. Oded was also a symbol of the many men and women who had dedicated their lives to seeking peace with the Palestinians, and whose lives were brutally ended by Palestinians on that darkest of days.

In a year of somber days, today is one of the more difficult ones we have experienced - here at Call Me Back, and as a nation. We are joined today to process this wrenching moment by a Call Me Back favorite: Matti Friedman, to help us understand what this day means for Israel, and how it will change us and the stories we tell ourselves about Israel and our hopes for peace.

Matt Friedman is an award-winning journalist and author of four books. He is based in Jerusalem, and writes a column for The Free Press. Read his latest, “The Family That Never Came Home,” here: https://www.thefp.com/p/matti-friedman-the-bibas-shiri-kfir-ariel-yarden

Matti’s books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Matti-Friedman/author/B0073YU31C

Link to Seth Mandel’s article in Commentary Magazine, mentioned by Dan in this episode: https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/the-meaning-of-kfir-bibas/

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Rebecca Strom, who has been running Ark Media’s operations almost since the beginning of the war, and is now moving on to the next chapter in her career. Rebecca was our first hire, and in hindsight, having her run our operations allowed Ilan and Dan to develop a larger vision. More on that in the near future. In the meantime, on behalf of the Ark Media team, we want to share our gratitude for all the hard work, long hours, holidays and weekends that Rebecca poured into this venture.

Consequently, Ark Media is now looking for a hard working, mission-aligned, highly motivated Chief Operating Officer. If you want to throw your hat into the ring, please follow this link

CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Editor

STAV SLAMA - Director of Operations

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research Intern

YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer