106: After October 7, can Israeli politics be rebuilt? A conversation with Dr. Einat Wilf

Ask Haviv Anything

Haviv Rettig Gur

History

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A new Israeli election is coming -- and it may reshape everything. In this opening episode of our election series, I sit down with former MK and political thinker Dr. Einat Wilf, now leading the new Oz party, to ask a fundamental question: Has October 7 broken Israeli politics as we knew it? We dive into voter realignment, the possible collapse of old “tribes,” the Haredi draft crisis, and whether a new political vision can emerge, or whether the system is too entrenched to change.

This episode is sponsored anonymously in memory of Jack Rose and his son, Paul Lawrence Rose, and dedicated to the themes of Jewish survival, renewal, and education. Jack Rose’s parents and siblings were gassed in Nazi death camps. After serving with the Allies, he rebuilt his life in the UK, becoming president of Blackburn College of Technology and a robotics pioneer and publishing over fifty books. Honored by the Queen and UNESCO, Jack eventually reconnected to Israel, traveling often to the Jewish homeland. His son, Paul, transformed that legacy into scholarship as a leading historian of German culture and antisemitism. Before his 2014 death, Paul was editing a definitive manuscript, Antisemitisms, tracing the evolution of antisemitism. Both men were known for their warmth, generosity, and marvelous humor.

In the spirit of renewal through education, we invite you to learn about Gan Condesa in Mexico City. After decades of Jewish life migrating to the gated suburbs, Gan Condesa is reclaiming a presence in the city’s walkable, cultural heart. Through its thriving Montessori and expanding community center, it is reconnecting unaffiliated families to their Jewish heritage. Visit ganmexico.com to donate or invest in this permanent Jewish home in North America’s largest city.

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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining me. Welcome to a new episode of Ask Haviv Anything.
0:09.0	Our topic today is the upcoming Israeli elections. I know. There's a lot on our plate.
0:15.0	But Israel will have momentous elections. If everything stays the same, that will be momentous. If everything changes,
0:22.7	that will be very dramatic as well. The elections have to be held by law by October. And so we're
0:28.5	going to do a few episodes, probably very a great many episodes on this subject. There's so many
0:34.4	fundamental issues about Israel's future, about Israel's society that that are right now on the agenda of this election, that we're going to have a lot of
0:42.3	conversations about it. We wanted to start today with a friend of mine, Dr. Ennath
0:49.0	Wilf, a leading thinker on Israel, on Zionism, on foreign policy, on education policy.
0:55.9	Dr. Wilf is the author of several books that explore key issues in Israeli society,
1:01.3	and not just the famous ones.
1:04.3	How Israeli society organizes its education system, Charedi education, an Arab education,
1:09.9	and secular education and religious education.
1:12.3	These are fundamental questions about our future, about the next generation, about the character
1:15.8	of our society.
1:17.4	Nat was a member of the Israeli parliament.
1:19.2	She served as chair of the Education Committee, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,
1:23.7	and she is now running in this election at the head of a brand new party,
1:28.3	a brand new party called the Oz Party.
1:30.2	Now, I'm going to get emails.
1:31.9	Why didn't you interview from my party?
1:33.7	Why didn't you interview this person or that person?
1:36.3	Folks, it's the beginning of a large conversation.
	...

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