Day 526 - Micah Goodman on what Israel can trust about Hamas

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

News

4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Public intellectual Micah Goodman joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's Daily Briefing, a bonus episode of ToI's weekly podcast series, What Matters Now.

As 24 living hostages languish in Gaza, Israel finds itself at a crossroads: Will the nation sign a deal with the terrorist group the Jewish state is bent on destroying or return to war against Hamas to apply pressure for the captives' release?

Goodman explains how both sides of this argument see their position as protecting the nation. We hear, however, how the twin quests for national security and solidarity may appear to be in conflict with each other -- and how to overcome that paradox.

And as Goodman pushes for Israel to sign a deal to release the hostages -- living and dead -- he explains how we must trust Hamas "to give Israel 17 reasons to restart the war." He cautions it must be a war that is launched at Israel's discretion, backed by national consensus and with the determination to realize the goal of destroying Hamas.

And so this week, we ask Micah Goodman, what matters now.

Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Illustrative: A Palestinian boy carries a toy gun while standing with members of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, during a rally in Gaza City on May 24, 2021. (AFP / Emmanuel DUNAND)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel's What Matters now, our weekly podcast drilling into one issue affecting Israel and the Jewish world right now.
0:09.9	I'm your host deputy editor, Amanda Barsheldan here with philosopher, neighbor, and good friend, Mikha Goodman, author of many, many, many books as well.
0:19.6	So, Micha, thank you for letting me sit with you
0:22.1	outside your house today. Thank you, Amanda. It's nice to be here. It is so nice to be here.
0:26.9	Listeners, you'll hear bird sawing. You may hear some neighbors. It's a beautiful day, and I'm so
0:32.6	grateful to be looking at your view. I have no view at my house, Micha, so I'm a little jealous. And it's just,
0:39.0	I'm filled with gratitude, actually, in this moment, to sit here right now, not just because my
0:43.6	three-year-old is at home with his older brother, and I'm not there. So thank you very much.
0:49.0	My pleasure. Today is the eve of Purim, one of the holidays that I actually despise.
0:56.8	And we've talked about that in the past, but I have to say I kind of dislike every single Jewish holiday.
1:03.0	And this morning I was walking my dog Happy, the naughty dog, whom you've met several times.
1:08.0	And I kind of figured out why. Why do I dislike Jewish holidays so much?
1:13.2	And I think it's any holiday, really.
1:15.1	And it's because it takes me out of balance, right?
1:18.5	My life is a carefully crafted balance of work and home and, you know, seven kids and
1:24.6	occasionally friends.
1:26.5	And every holiday takes me out of balance.
1:28.9	Pooim, I think, takes me the most out of balance,
1:31.7	because it is the most out of balance holiday.
1:35.8	Would you agree with me on that?
1:37.4	It's interesting.
1:38.2	Pouriam is like the moment where there's a sense that we're supposed to hide,
	...

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