Welcome to the Times of Israel's The Daily Briefing.

Today is Monday, March 23rd.

I'm Amanda Borchelle Dan here in our Jerusalem studio with diplomatic correspondent, Laser

Bearman.

Laser, thank you so much for joining me today, as always.

Happy to be here as always.

Thank you so much.

And today we are facing a deadline in

this evening in which U.S. President Donald Trump said to Iran that the Strait of Khormuz must be

opened. So laser will dive in and tell us what this means if this deadline comes and passes.

We're also going to zoom out and talk about the war three weeks on. And then in the

second half of the program, we're going to discuss an impending ground operation in Lebanon. All of this

and more when we're back. When the headlines feel overwhelming, where do you turn for deeper

perspectives and ideas?

I'm Tali Rosenblatt Cohen, host of the Five Books podcast. In every episode, I sit down with

Jewish authors to talk not only about their latest work, but about the five books that

shaped their Jewish identity and shifted their perspective. Recent conversations include

award-winning authors like Ziva Bukai, Rabbi Angela Bookdahl, Sam Sussman, and more.

Join us as we talk to Mati Friedman about his new book, Out of the Sky, about one of Israel's founding legends.

I'm trying to explain what this place is. It's a very confusing place, and in some ways, the longer you live here, the more surprising it is.

And the harder

it is to understand. So it might be strange for me to say that a book that takes place in

...