Day 697 - Lapid dips into election rhetoric, appeals for unity
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
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.
Political correspondent Sam Sokol and tech reporter Sharon Wrobel join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
As deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said she won't follow foreign minister and New Hope party head Gideon Sa'ar into a merger with the Likud party, Sokol discusses Haskel's position on the front lines of Israel's information battle and her concerns about Likud's representation of moderate voters.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid warned of the end of Zionism if Netanyahu's coalition wins the next election, which Sokol calls Lapid's election rhetoric, consistent with how Lapid has been speaking for the last few years.
Sokol analyzes rising tensions between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Haredi parties and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth's new approach to Haredi conscription law.
Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air plans to establish a base in Israel, notes Wrobel, offering it advantages in the Israeli air transportation market.
Wrobel also discusses milk shortages in Israel due to production issues and consumer panic.
IMAGE: Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid attends a Yesh Atid party conference in Tel Aviv, September 1, 2025 (Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily Briefing. It is Tuesday, September 2nd, and I'm Jessica Steinberg. I'm speaking today with political correspondent Sam Sokol and tech editor Sharon Roble. Hi to you both. Good morning. Morning. Good morning. It is day 697 of the war. In this morning's headlines, |
| 0:23.3 | U.S. President Donald Trump says the ongoing war in Gaza is hurting Israel in the Court of Public |
| 0:28.4 | opinion. There's also the news that Belgium will join France, England, and others in recognizing |
| 0:35.6 | a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly. |
| 0:39.7 | And there is the headline that the IDF chief of staff is set to have uprated Prime Minister |
| 0:45.9 | Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers at Sunday night's heated security cabinet meeting. |
| 0:51.7 | We'll discuss Sam's recent interview with Deputy Foreign Minister Sharon Haskell, |
| 0:57.3 | the latest tiff between Kharedi parties of Ashkenazi and Sephardic descent, and what's happening |
| 1:03.3 | with the ultra-Orthodox conscription law. We'll also talk about Hungarian low-cost airline setting up a base |
| 1:10.0 | at Bangorian airport and the |
| 1:12.1 | current milk shortage in Israel. Stay with us. |
| 1:19.2 | It was violent. It was awful, of course, but I think that what brought the similarities |
| 1:24.8 | to my imagination was what happened after, the language that |
| 1:28.8 | happened after, the reactions that were so unfair. But the event itself, you know, the Holocaust |
| 1:35.3 | was very different. It was very silent. The people who died there died alone. |
| 1:40.8 | Hi, I'm Manja Marcus, host of What Came After. |
| 1:44.3 | This past February, I traveled to Poland to meet with several staff members at the Warsaw |
| 1:48.4 | Office of Elnett, an organization that strengthens diplomatic ties between Europe and Israel. |
| 1:54.8 | Together, we recorded a roundtable discussion about the impact of October 7th in Eastern Europe. |
| 1:59.8 | He said that he's not surprised that this happened, |
| 2:02.8 | and let's wait and see what's going to happen in Poland |
| 2:05.6 | because he said anti-Semitism was never dead. |
... |
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